


The World You Know

by erikahk



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Gen, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-19
Updated: 2013-01-19
Packaged: 2017-11-26 01:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/645121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erikahk/pseuds/erikahk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Atlantis team finds an Ancient lab and ends up in trouble in some strange place. Or isn't it? Crossover SGA/SG1. Set shortly after season 5 of SGA after they somehow return to Pegasus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks drewandian(@LJ) for cheerleading and first reading for me, even though I made you wait one year for the finished version. Thanks sherry57(@LJ) for the beta. *hugs* Thanks so much girls!

Gabe placed the thick pair of glasses on the table before rubbing his tired eyes. The pieces of paper under his elbow had too many numbers and his head was spinning from looking at them for so long. He sat pressing his eyeballs for a few moments then put his glasses back on his face. 

He looked at the clock. 

He muffled a groan and decided it was past the time to close the store. Clutching the table, he rose to his feet and heard joints snapping, sending old aches through his bones. 

"Hey, Timmy." He smiled as he petted the soft fur. "Hungry too?" 

The small fluffy ball closed its eyes in contentment and purred. 

"Sorry for the late dinner. I kind of forgot about the time," Gabe said as he walked around the counter. "Too many problems to worry about."

He limped through a few aisles then halted and sighed loudly. He shook his head as he contemplated the open box littering the floor. He closed his eyes briefly, not liking the idea of having to bend down to pick it up. 

"Children, children, why do you make things so hard on me?"

He decided to pass right through the mess and worry about it in the morning. After he reached the transparent door, he flipped the 'closed' sign and retrieved the keys from his pocket. He locked the shop then started to head to his little bedroom. 

He stopped midstride when the lamp flickered for a few moments. He looked up, seeing it shake slightly then start to brighten. The light increased in notches and, after a few seconds, he had to turn his head away and shade his eyes not to be blinded. He squeezed his eyes for several moments, the sounds of the metal shelves vibrating all around him. After a while, the redness behind his eyelids darkened announcing it was safe to open them again.

Adjusting to the darkness took him a few seconds. He gave a step forward, hearing the sound of crunching glass under his boots. 

"Timmy?" Silence hovered by several moments. "Are you there?"

The screech made his heart jump. He snapped his head around at the sound then blinked at the new source of light. A small circle of white light hovered above the sidewalk outside, increasing in size. Gabe stepped towards the mesmerizing glow, slowly and steadily. 

The sphere pulsed, each time making it shine more and more, forcing him to raise his arms to shade his eyes again. Suddenly, it exploded in electric energy and the last thing he saw were sparks from all the light bulbs and all the shelves dropping on top of him.

*********

Ronon didn't think anyone could be more bored than he was at that moment. He looked down, Rodney still going on about power or something else. Ronon looked back up, continuing with the activity he had been doing the whole day: standing around.

He grunted. There were a limited amount of perimeter checks a tiny Ancestral laboratory in a completely uninhabited planet could need. 

"... then this could be a weapon or maybe a new energy source." 

The voice had Ronon snapping his head around to tune Rodney back in. 

"Did you say weapon?" Sheppard asked. 

Rodney was in the center of a group of consoles and Sheppard stood in the gap between two panels. Screens hung from the ceiling, and other ones were on the walls. 

"I still don't know for sure, but the energy generation charts are way above normal. Of course, this is only the test file, so it could be wrong." McKay smirked as he went to and fro. 

"Maybe _you_ could be wrong instead of the file." 

Rodney seemed to ignore Sheppard's comment. "Look at this," McKay said while grinning from ear to ear. "If this is right, then we are close to ZedPM levels here!" He pointed at the screen. "The waves _are_ oscillating, but the radiation level is steady. I think they were trying to fix the oscillating pattern, which explains the spike here." 

McKay went on explaining how everything was deeply complicated and fascinating, but all Ronon got were a few loose words like gama, beta, pink wavy line and blue dots. None of which made any sense to him so he decided to go back to studying the ceiling and stop trying to pay attention to Rodney. 

Ronon had already memorized every single curve on each wall of the laboratory. It was the same as every single one of them across the galaxy. Ronon grunted once more, expecting to gain some kind of reaction from at least Teyla, but she seemed genuinely interested on the scientific conversation. 

He hated these scientific missions for the exact same reason McKay loved them: they did not involve killing wraith. Or killing anything for that matter.

Except time.

Ronon heard the sigh coming from near him and looked down at Teyla who now stood by him. She leaned against the wall, her hands resting on the weapon attached to her vest then directed her eyes to the two other men. He followed Teyla's gaze. 

"Would you stop that!" Rodney snapped loudly. 

"I'm not touching." 

McKay stared. "Would you leave the casual not-touching-and-only-hovering-above-the-controls to the experts!"

Sheppard indicated the colorful chart on the screen. "Maybe you should check those readings before--" 

"Who's the genius here, hmmm?" McKay walked around all the different panels, pressing many controls and generally making things light up. 

"I'm just saying, that if you turn that thing on before knowing what it does..." Sheppard stepped forward.

McKay stopped briefly to look at Sheppard and waved his hands in one abrupt move. "I'm _not_ turning it on. Besides, I can only find out the true purpose of this place if I stop guessing the charts and do some actual observation." 

"Then why is that light blinking so red? As far as I know, red means bad." Sheppard was pointing the screen again. 

McKay dismissed it with a flourish of his hands. "Nah, it's normal." 

"How do you know that?" 

Rodney turned. "Because it says here _'red blinking light means shut the hell up'_!" 

"I thought it said _'energy build up'_ ," Sheppard sulked. 

"Look, it stopped already. Like I said, completely normal."

Ronon observed how Rodney could always make his thoughts clear with a mere wave of hands. Right now they said ' _I'm the genius here'_.

"What about the orange one? It's bigger and looks like it flashes angrier than the red." 

Rodney's glare made a few seconds pass before Sheppard spoke again. 

"Are you sure this is a weapon?" 

McKay turned to face Sheppard. "Oh, for Christ's sake! I don't _know_ yet! Can you please stop the annoying questioning and let the genius mind work?" he said angrily. "Just go over there and make yourself invisible until I let you come back." He pointed in Ronon and Teyla's direction. 

Sheppard looked at them and Ronon gave him the ' _just come here and stop making him whine already_ ' look. Ronon was not impressed by the _'it's not my fault'_ shrug Sheppard gave him back, especially after he continued to hover right behind the console trying to peek over Rodney's shoulder. 

Ronon grunted and went back to staring above. Minutes turned to hours and Ronon was ready to break something. Sheppard and McKay had been bickering like an old couple when Ronon left for the tenth perimeter check of the day and hadn't finished by the time he had come back. He leaned over the same wall and grunted as a show of boredom. He received an apologetic look from Sheppard then turned his face to stare at the ceiling.

"What did you do?" 

Something in Rodney's tone made Ronon jerk his head at Sheppard's direction. 

"I didn't do anything!" 

"Oh, crap!" Rodney's fingers suddenly became a blur on the panel. "Oh, crapcrapcrap!"

Whenever any of them said those Earth curse words, only bad things happened. Ronon approached the consoles and felt Teyla following. 

"Nononono, don't do this!" Rodney stared at the screen, his eyes widening. Ronon imitated the motion, but got nothing from looking at it. 

"What?" Sheppard asked just as an alarm started to blare.

"Oh, crap!" Rodney went back to working.

Sheppard raised his voice to be heard above the alarm. "We got that part! What's wrong?" 

"I don't know why or how but the wave energy just started spiking!" 

McKay cursed a few more times and let out his frustration in rapid taps on keys and buttons. "C'mon! What the hell is wrong with you? Just obey me, dammit!"

"Can't you stop it?" Sheppard walked around closer to McKay. 

"I can't!" McKay looked at the screen, eyes darting madly around. "It's past the threshold! We have to get out of here..." He turned to face them. 

"Let's move!" 

They all turned at once and started for the door as the alarm increased. A loud bang was the last thing Ronon heard before they were blinded by light and crumbled down on the floor, unconscious.

*********

Something touched her shoulder. Teyla turned her head away from it, feeling too dazed to do anything else. The light hand squeezed when she heard a grave voice above her head. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a Ronon-like silhouette in the dim light.

"What happened?" she asked when her mind cleared. 

"Don't know." 

Ronon stepped back allowing Teyla to see her teammates waking up as well.

Her gaze traveled around their surroundings. Glass littered around the metal poles that had once illuminated the street. It was dark but the moon was full and cast eerie shadows on the pavement. Many buildings which appeared to be made of concrete covered both sides, none of them taller than two levels. 

She narrowed her eyes. M4G-789 was completely uninhabited and covered by heavy vegetation. Where were they? 

Rodney sat up on the hard pavement. "Oooowww, I'm all tingly," he complained. 

"Where are we?" John asked as he rubbed the sides of his head.

Rodney looked around for a while. "Beats me..." 

Teyla blinked a few times. The stun pulse had left an unpleasant sensation she had felt many times before. She flexed her fingers to ease the tingling. 

"Well, you were the one messing with the lab. What went wrong?" John asked.

"I don't know, it wasn't my fault!" 

"Oh, really!" John raised his voice slightly. "Remember when I told you to _not_ turn on the regulators before we had the console checked out?"

Teyla's head spiked with pain, but the fact that Rodney and John were bickering at each other was only a sign that they were, in fact, all right.

Rodney stared. "I did check it. Who's the expert here, huh?"

"Then whose fault is it?" 

"Maybe the Ancients that built that thing?" 

Teyla sighed. "Maybe we should focus on where we are before pointing blame." She put on the diplomatic voice she had to use all too often with Rodney and John. 

It was the same tone she had to use with Torren.

"Looks like a street," Ronon observed. 

Rodney staggered as he got up. "Oh, zing! I think she meant what planet?" 

Teyla shook her head and tried not to moan when pain pierced her skull again. 

"Here." 

Teyla opened her eyes and saw a smiling Ronon, his hand stretched before him. 

John got to his feet as well. "It better be one with a gate," he said as he hobbled around with a limp on his right leg.

"One that is not in orbit too," Rodney added. 

"Hey." 

She turned and saw Ronon inside a building, kneeling next to a pile of boxes and cans. She followed Rodney and John through a big broken window. She lit up her lamp, only now noticing she was the only one carrying a P90. John had left his in the lab and only had his sidearm, and the same could be said about Rodney. She pointed the light at Ronon's direction and saw blood on the floor. She followed it with the lamp until she saw a hand raised in between all the contents of the shelves that had obviously fallen down. 

She promptly moved to action, making her way towards the injured person by moving boxes around. She avoided the glass littering the floor and climbed on top of one of the racks. Standing on a piece of the floor in between two shelves, she started handing products to her teammates until they uncovered the body of an old man, bloodied and broken. John climbed over the metal and touched the neck, shaking his head when she eyed him questioningly. 

"Hey, guys," Rodney called from a few meters away. "Look at this." 

She walked towards him and saw the box he was holding. It was tall and narrow, with a colorful front and top. 

"What the hell..." John said softly as his gaze fell on the hundreds of products around them. 

She looked around, but still didn't understand what their reaction meant. 

"Fruit loops," Rodney said, his voice sounding stunned.

She frowned. She looked at Ronon and received the same blank look. Rodney distractedly handled the box to her then walked outside. They all followed. 

"It's the moon." 

She followed his gaze. The night sky was cast but a few stars punctuated its blackness. 

"And the stars..." Rodney continued. 

She looked back down at him. "What about them, Rodney?" 

"It's _the_ Moon!" He looked at her. "Look at the stars!" He waved his hand up. 

"We're on Earth?" John asked with the same surprised tone. 

Teyla's eyes widened in surprise. 

"How can that be?" Ronon voiced her thought. 

"I don't know, but we _are_ on Earth. I mean--" He indicated the sky again. "Look!" 

"You said that thing was a weapon!" John said in an angry whisper that carried a lot of restrained growling.

"I said I didn't know!"

"Well, obviously it wasn't!" John narrowed his eyes.

"I think it was more like interplanetary transporter system," Rodney nervously corrected. "It's going to take weeks to get back!" 

"That'll teach you to _not_ turn strange machines on without knowing what they do." 

"I _didn't_ turn it on!" Rodney glared. "It just..." 

"Came on by itself?" 

"As a matter of fact, yes, it did. I just-- well..." Rodney waved his hand. 

"Turned it on."

"Well, I just activated the interface, all right? I didn't know the Ancients were stupid enough to leave the power feedback on a loop." 

Sheppard pursed lips. "Right. So, where are we? What city?"

Teyla looked at the horizon and saw it covered by small lights coming from very tall buildings. It seemed to stretch far into every direction.

"Must be a big city..." 

She was about to add her own opinion when a long shrieking sound reached her ears. She recognized the sound from the movie nights the team usually shared. It was a police siren. 

"Oh, crap!" John said as he looked at her, then at his sidearm. 

Rodney's eyes widened. "Oh, God! We don't have IDs. We're armed and in full gear! They're going to think--" 

"Let's get the hell out of here and contact the SGC." 

"Can't we simply explain the situation to the police?" she asked. 

"Explain what?" Rodney waved at the broken shop. "That a big bright light of energy brought us here from another galaxy and accidentally exploded a store and killed a man?" He barely kept his tone in a whisper. 

"Come on!" John motioned them towards the street. 

They ran ahead for several meters until John turned into a small alley. They continued down the dark passage as the sirens grew closer. Red light briefly reflected on the broken glass coming from the street they had left behind. She turned again and saw Rodney run into a can of trash, dumping it and its contents with a loud bang. Then, they ran into a wall.

"Crap!" Rodney complained "I'm not climbing this!" 

"Come on, Rodney!" John motioned as he interlaced his fingers for Rodney to step on. 

"Oh, God!"

Rodney climbed onto John's hand then held the top of the brick wall. John raised Rodney's body until he was halfway on the other side, then turned to Teyla and repeated the process. She landed with a thump and dusted her clothes, waiting until Ronon and John fell beside her only seconds afterwards.

The four resumed the running and she nearly bumped into another blocked passage. This time it was a fence.

"Oh, come on! Is a free path to run from the police too much to ask for?"

They ignored Rodney's inability to remain quiet and started to climb over the obstacle. She went first with Rodney, her body balancing as it wobbled back and forth. She jumped when she got to the other side, her hands red with the effort of holding tightly onto the metal wires. 

The bright red lights had multiplied in the time it took for her teammates to get over the barrier and now circled all the nearby streets. They continued across the next path and into another alleyway.

A few minutes and several streets later, they complied with Rodney and slowed down. A few police cars remained, but they seemed to have decided on widening the search area thus making it easier for the team to see any one of them approaching before hiding.

Teyla carefully observed this world, which was very different from the sights she had usually seen on the few occasions she had visited. This time, the streets were dark and dirty, garbage littered the corners of the small passages between blocks and dark shadows loomed in hidden corners.

They stopped by a darkened alley which faced a busy street.

"There should be a phone around here." John said while peeking around the wall. "We can't walk around with these guns out in the open." He looked at his team. "I know this place is a little dodgy, so we need to be careful."

"Careful, huh?" Rodney complained. "The police are still looking for us!"

"Yes, and that's why I'm going alone and you guys are going to stay here." He removed his vest, sidearm and earpiece and gave them to Ronon. "If they see me, then at least you guys will be safe and could get me out of trouble." He looked at Ronon and Teyla. "You guys have to listen to Rodney while I'm gone. I'll be back in no time."

*********

The first thing John noticed when he stepped inside the bar was the smell of alcohol. The place had an orange glow and was packed full of people. It seemed like he had stepped into one of those dark movies with lots of bar brawls and smoking. Big guys played pool and cards, women in scanty clothing made themselves obvious, some sitting on men's laps and others either making out or moving to the back of the bar.

John carefully shouldered his way towards the counter, trying to ignore the loud shouts and yells coming from apparently everywhere. Some huge guy was thrown across his path, missing John by mere inches, then another ran past to continue the fight. John managed to escape the altercation and sat on a stool.

"What's it gonna be?" the bartender asked.

John leaned over the counter. "Is there a phone I can use?" 

The man pointed towards the back. 

John nodded and once again made his way through the crowd. He was turning his head away from an armpit that had appeared out of nowhere when he bumped against someone and tumbled back. 

He was looking up at the bigger man when he felt a blow connect to the side of his face. His knees weakened and he nearly collapsed but was held upright by someone else. When his vision cleared, he saw two big red eyes staring at him. 

"You're going to regret that, son," the man said as he moved to punch John again. 

John instinctively moved his head away and succeeded in avoiding the blow due to the other man's slowed reflexes. The heavy fist hit the person that had been holding John up and the hand grasping his arm let go as the man toppled back. The first guy was already preparing another punch so John ducked and rolled. The drunk gave a couple of steps before realizing he had missed and turned abruptly, looking madly from side to side. The second one got up and, having spotted John as he rose to his feet, tackled him to the floor and locked him in a firm grip. 

Both hands squeezed his neck as John jerked around trying to escape. The other attacker joined and held John's arms above his head while the man on top of him prevented any movements from his legs. Black spots started covering his vision, lungs desperately screaming for air to flow back. Just when John was beginning to feel the night claiming him, the pressure against his throat eased and a huge gulp of air filled his airway. 

He turned to his side and was appreciating the pleasure of breathing again when he was suddenly hauled upright and cuffed. 

"Ow!" John tried to look behind him. "Hey!" 

That's when he saw all the cops around him.

*********


	2. Chapter 2

John drummed his fingers on the table, trying to restrain himself from growling. He was left to wait for nearly six hours without even a phone call. He would also like to leave a complaint about the cops with anger control issues and that _accidentally_ banged their suspects heads against the police car. And he would be able to do that as soon as the SGC bailed him out of this mess. He could already imagine the look on some of his superior officers' faces when they heard about this.

He'd thought he'd done sharing a filthy cell with dozens of drunks. In between the smell of urine and vomit, John had been really glad to be escorted out. He'd been hoping to see his team along with someone from the SGC when the bars opened, but the cop had turned around a corner and locked him in another room. 

It was small with a weak lamp overhead. He'd been forced to sit on a very uncomfortable metal chair facing another chair, the one-way mirror on his left. So, John was left with drumming his fingers on the table.

He stopped himself when the door of the interrogation room finally opened. A middle aged man in a cheap suit entered. 

"Hello, John," he started. "I'm Detective Reid." The detective sat down. "I must say I'm surprised to see you around these parts." He waved his hand around. "What's the reason for your visit?" 

"I already asked your people that I need to make a call. Why the delay?"

"You are in the Air Force," he stated calmly. "And _I_ am a police officer. We are in the same side of things." 

"I'll talk to General Landry now, please." John crossed his arms, not wanting to chat. 

"What base?"

"NORAD."

The man stood up and exited the room. The noise of chatter outside entered for a brief moment then it was gone after the door was closed. Several minutes passed in which John had to stand up and walk around. The door opened again and Reid entered.

"There's no General Landry in NORAD, son." The detective sat down and invited John to do the same.

"Maybe you're just not looking well because I'm pretty sure there is."

"Well, Major, maybe he's not there anymore. It's been some time since you've been out of the picture."

John narrowed his eyes. 

"Look," Reid continued. "I won't pretend to know what the hell happened in Afghanistan. For all I know it could have been a living hell."

So that was why they had taken so long to talk to him. They had been looking for his records. John was genuinely surprised that they had been able to access it, let alone read it. John tensed slightly, feeling there was something off.

"I'm not saying anything until I talk with either Landry or General Jack O'Neill."

The man nodded, stood up and exited the room again.

He returned several minutes later and sat.

"Again, no General O'Neill anywhere."

John watched him and couldn't tell if the man was lying or not, except for the fact that John knew he was. No one would be able to find any military officer, especially generals, in such short time.

"Why did you come to LA?" Reid crossed his legs. 

"If you won't call him, then I will," John said, leaning forward. 

"Like I said, there is no Jack O'Neill currently in the Air Force." 

John resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Maybe you dialed the wrong number. Do you want me to write it down for you?" 

"If you just talk to me I can decide if I let you go or not." Reid crossed his arms and waited. 

John sighed loudly. It would be a lot easier to go back to Pegasus without a cop questioning him. 

"Why are you in the city?" 

"I hear it's good for surfing and spotting celebrities." Maybe antagonizing the cop wasn't the best choice, but the guy had it coming. 

"What else?" 

John nearly smiled at the almost annoyed tone the cop used in the question. 

"That's pretty much it." John nodded. 

"Some people like to come to this city for more illegal purposes."

John knew how interrogations worked. He had been at the other side of the table several times. Whatever he said, Reid would just twist to an admission of guilt. So John simply decided not to react at all. 

"Is that why you came?" Reid continued. 

What did Reid want with him? If he had gone through his file, then he knew this whole thing was pointless. John crossed his arms to reinforce the idea that he was not talking.

"I know something bad happened back in Afghanistan." 

John rolled his eyes. Now he’d have to stand bad psychiatry. 

"Did you like it there?" 

"Did you lose your friends?" 

John eyed the detective and burned the words _'I won't speak to you until you call my superiors'_ on his forehead. 

"Did it make you rethink what you were doing there and decide to come back?" Reid was a pro and didn't have any aggressive posture. "But of course…" He leaned over. "There's the fact that you were found in a bar largely known for the many illegal activities conducted inside, and guess what? Minutes after an attack to an old man's shop was made. Witness swear they saw a man in dark military clothes and wild spiky hair running from the shop after it was destroyed. It's so easy to jump to conclusions under these circumstances, John."

*********

"I knew something had to go wrong!" Rodney whispered angrily as he peaked around the corner.

"What do we do now?" Teyla asked softly. 

Rodney turned to his team. "Well, we have to call the SGC and inform them," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They'll get Sheppard out and pick us up in no time." 

He turned back to the street then back at Ronon and Teyla. "We can't risk getting separated or caught under any circumstances, okay? The police is still looking around, probably blaming terrorists or whatever. If you two happen to get caught, don't resist, _please_." He gave a pointed look at Ronon. "Don't attack them and I beg you not to point any guns. If they interrogate you, the only thing out of your mouths _has_ to be 'I want a lawyer’ and _nothing_ more. Clear?" He glanced at each one of them as they nodded their understanding. 

Rodney knew it wouldn't be easy getting to the big General only on collect calls, so he started thinking of alternatives. Silence hovered for a few moments. 

He snapped his fingers. "I know what I'm gonna do! I'm going to call Jeannie. Collect call. I think she'll accept it. I'll explain what happened and she can call the big guys." 

Rodney reached his gun holster and unclipped it. "We'll have to leave our gear. We can't walk around like this." He unzipped his vest. "C'mon guys!" he ordered when he saw no one moving. 

"I'm not leaving my gun." Ronon crossed his arms. 

Rodney dropped his vest by Sheppard's. "Keeping your gun is way more trouble than we need right now. You could go to jail to say the least. If anyone sees it working it'll be even worse. You do remember the no disclosure agreement you both had to sign, don't you?" 

Rodney could see that Ronon didn't like that idea in the slightest. 

"Look, we'll just go for a walk around the block and look for a phone in a quiet enough place, okay? If we are really lucky in finding one..." 

"I can stay here. I'm not going to get caught." He opened his arms to show how non-threatening he could be. 

"What if _I_ get caught, huh?"

"Then, if we're with you, then I'll be caught too and I'd rather not be." 

Rodney rolled his eyes. "I get your point," he conceded. "Teyla, you stay here too. I'll take my earpiece." 

He turned around and went on his way.

*********

Ronon stared at the night sky, trying to get a glimpse of stars. He could count the ones he found with the fingers of one hand. He went back to looking down the street and was met with the same sight as all other times. Red lights were still hovering around adjacent streets, sometimes passing by and stopping groups of people to make questions. 

Ronon let his eyes wander back to the sky. It reminded him of Sateda. When Ronon stood in the middle of the capital, the sky would look exactly the same. A few blinking stars, fading as if worn out and one big orange moon standing over the ancestral ring right above the square. He smiled.

"He should have been back by now," Teyla said.

Ronon turned his head but didn't straighten up from his leaned position against the wall. "We didn't hear any police cars sirens. He's probably still looking for a phone or waiting for Jeannie to call back." 

"Still, it's been over twenty minutes." Her composed expression showed a hint of concern barely visible under the faint light. 

Ronon snapped his head around at the sound of footsteps, but soon re-holstered his gun. 

He looked at Teyla. "See? He's here." 

"So?" she asked expectantly. 

"Nothing." Rodney raised a hand. "Zero. Nada. Stupid phone company insists her number doesn't exist. Hell, they couldn't even find her name anywhere in Vancouver _or_ Canada." 

Ronon frowned. "What does that mean?" 

"I have no idea." McKay had a puzzled expression. "Unless she poofed out of existence or moved away without telling me, her number should have worked. I tried calling the military too. They shut me down completely. Wouldn't take my clearance or identification."

"Why would they do that?" Teyla asked. 

"Didn't you just hear me say I have no idea?" McKay looked at her condescendingly. "The point is, there's something not right here. I should have been able to call Jeannie. Even her cell phone doesn't exist. Or her husband's."

Ronon wasn't native to Earth but he knew how things could work smoothly on the planet. He had been there enough times to know how things like the Internet and telephones worked, even without being able to use them properly. Rodney being confused by his own planet couldn't be anything good. 

"So, what do we do?" Ronon asked. 

"I think we should lay low. Find some place and stay there. At least the two of you, because... you know... you can stand out a bit in the crowd." Rodney waved his hand mostly at Ronon's direction. "I'll then go to the nearest precinct and try to find Sheppard. If they have the same problem about contacting the Air Force he could be in trouble." His eyes unfocused in thought for a few moments. "We'll have to use the cover of night while we still have time. The sun’ll rise in five hours. Hopefully we can sort this out in the morning." He swallowed. "I hope."

*********

"This place is..." Teyla looked around the room. It was old and dusty, like it had not been used for decades. 

"Yes..." Rodney made a disgusted face as he stepped over a puddle of something. "No one is more repulsed than I am, but we can't exactly afford a five star hotel at the moment. I forgot my wallet in my other off-world gear."

Teyla's gaze traveled again to the room where they stood. It was inside an old abandoned building, its windows cracked and broken, doors hanging by a single screw and the painting on the walls peeling. The furniture was covered with a thick layer of dust, and lots of trash lay around. Teyla saw some needles, a couple of empty injections and tubes and she wasn't sure she wanted to check what the big dark smear on the wall was. 

"It'll do." 

Rodney's face twisted in disgust when he looked at the wasted medical supplies. "Well, for someone that spent seven years running around in the wilds this must be the honeymoon suite. It’s probably infested with all sorts of horrific diseases and... ugh..." Rodney frowned as Ronon threw some fallen bricks away. "Could you stop that! We need to stay quiet." 

"Yes, you're doing a wonderful job of that." Ronon glared. 

"Is that supposed to mean anything?" 

Teyla managed to smile. 

Ronon dusted his clothes and hands and sat on the bricks he collected. "Stop complaining, McKay. You'll be out after Sheppard soon enough."

"And what do we do in the meantime? Huh?" 

Ronon shot a glare at Rodney. "Why don't you stay quiet?"

"Because... we need to find out what's going on here." Rodney walked around the place and caused dust to rise. "I mean, why can't I call anyone?"

"This is your planet, Rodney," Teyla started. "Is there anyone you can contact?"

"No." He looked around, then shook his head and remained where he stood. "Jeannie, her husband, the SGC... I don't know anyone else."

Teyla nodded. She also did not understand why Rodney had failed to contact his people. Rodney should be in his element, but he wasn't. 

"Maybe the reason you failed to make contact with anyone is because it's still night. Maybe we will have more luck in the morning."

Rodney sighed. "Yeah, maybe."

*********

John was being taken towards the interrogation room again where, he was told, his attorney waited. Being treated like a criminal was not all unexpected when traveling to alien planets, but it was not something he ever considered happening on his own one. He just hoped to be able to sort out this misunderstanding soon enough without too much bureaucracy, so he could be on his way back to Atlantis.

The interrogation from before had gone only one way and finally, after a long hour of the detective's monotone voice, John decided he was tired of that crap and called for a lawyer. He entered the room and saw a short young woman with short dark hair.

"Hi, I'm Helena Brants," she said as she extended her hand. "I'm your legal attorney." 

John took her hand awkwardly with the cuffs still in his wrists. She had a firm shake that showed a lot of confidence.

"I advise you not to say anything no matter what the detectives say." 

John held back a grunt and they sat down at the same time. His cuffs were removed just as the creek of the door announced that Reid had entered the room. John slumped back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Brants rose to her feet. "To start with, I want to say that your evidence against my client does not incriminate him in any act." 

Reid sat down. "His description fits," he delivered readily. 

She smoothed her skirt as she sat. "You can't charge him on murder, robbery and breaking and entering based on a description of a person in the dark." 

"Oh, that is just the tip of the iceberg." Reid threw a closed folder on the table. "You'll be facing desertion charges, son." 

John came forward in his chair. "What? That's ridiculous!" 

This cop was taking things way too far. His attorney opened the folder and John eyed it suspiciously. She frowned and placed it back on the table for him to have full sight of its contents.

He narrowed his eyes at what the bold letters said.

_'DECEASED'_

John opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times. He raised his head. His lawyer looked like she didn't like the surprise all that much. Well, he didn't like it either. He was pretty sure that was not what his file looked like. He looked further down and didn't recognize the assignments, and the dates of his transfers and promotions were also wrong. 

"Sheppard, Major John P." Reid started repeating what the file said. "Pilot, US Air Force, KIA, War Against Terrorism, Afghanistan, 2001."

"That's not possible," John interjected. "Your file is all wrong. I've never been to most of these places." He threw the papers back onto the table. 

He doubted it could be real, but then, who would go that far just to incriminate him? 

The attorney leaned forward and poked the papers on the table. "What's the meaning of all this?"

Reid leaned in return. "Looks like desertion for me. What does it look like to you?" Reid had the satisfied smile of a person that had just hit the jackpot.

"I'm not a deserter!" Brants held John's arm to stop him from speaking further. "What the hell is going on here?" 

"From what I can see, you faked your death to get out of the service." Reid's lips quirked at the corners. "How very honorable." He tilted his head. "How were you able to enter the country? Fake documents?"

How he wanted to answer that question. _'No, actually I was transported from another galaxy by a bright pulse of energy.'_

"We are not speaking another word until I see a full psychiatric evaluation of my client." Brants stood up.

John turned his head abruptly and opened his mouth, but she continued speaking. 

"We've all seen the cases, Reid. You can't win this one. I want some time with my client in the private room." 

John wanted to argue but he knew it wouldn't help his case the least. He couldn't explain what was happening. He only knew that there was something very wrong and that the implications it had on their situation were really not good.

*********

John was taken to another room. It was tiny and it only had space for two chairs facing each other and a small desk in between. He was forced to sit down and then was cuffed to a handle on the wall. He held his protest at the roughness of the guard and simply glared when his wrist was thrown onto the table. 

"We can talk freely in the private room," Brants said as she sat. She folded her hands on the table and looked at John for a second before continuing. "I'll call my psychiatrist to evaluate your overall mental health and you're not going to complain. Their case on the death of the store owner is not very strong, so we will focus on the desertion. I'm sure you must have heard all about the other cases that rained down on us after the invasion of Israel. We're going to do the same here. With enough luck it's going to have the same result and you'll only have to spend a couple years under observation." 

Either he had missed way too much of Earth's recent events or he really was going nuts, because he had no idea what the hell she had just said. 

"Wait just a minute. What are you talking about? And what's this place?" He looked around and saw cream colored tiles. 

She shook her head. "The private room?"

John nodded. He had never seen any police stations with rooms like that.

"The last Amendment?" she said as if it was obvious. 

John shook his head. "What?" 

She sighed. "Where _have_ you been?" She leaned forward. "Private rooms need to be present in every public building in America to ensure private conversations between people, most importantly between client and assigned lawyer." She spoke fast, as if she had memorized the words.

"Okay," John nodded. "What about the rest?"

She sighed again. "Your disappearance occurred during the American invasion of Israel, so we're going to use this here. You will--"

"What?" John interrupted.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "The way American soldiers were captured, tortured and executed when Israel was occupied by our forces. We're going to throw this ball at them, you were close enough to be part of the game as we saw from the most recent cases, and you went missing the exact week 75% of the soldiers went missing. It's too much of a coincidence for any court to dismiss. But it'll only hold if you fail your evaluation." She barely stopped to breathe. "Then all you need to worry is remembering the exact details of what happened out there." 

None of that rang any bells, and it only increased John's suspicions exponentially. Damn, he really needed to talk to Rodney. John sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. He decided to join in this little game for now and try to find a way to find his team. 

"All right. But first you need to find some people. They can help." John paused. "They were there too, but you have to promise nothing's gonna happen to them." John stared at her intently. 

She narrowed her eyes and seemed in doubt. "Are they military too?" 

"No they're all civilians." He licked his lips. "Is it a problem?" 

"If they are civilians, then this could help our case. Where can I find them?" She took a small notebook from her purse and a pen. 

"I don't really know, they were waiting for me close to the bar where I was arrested. They must have seen it and will come looking for me." 

She nodded. "I'll need names." 

"You gotta promise--" 

"You're my client, everything we discuss inside this room is a secret." Her face softened. "Nothing will happen to them."

John bit his lip. "All right. Doctor Rodney McKay." 

"Doctor?" she asked as she wrote down the name. 

"Not the medical kind. He's not hard to find, you'll hear him before you see him. He'll probably be with a woman and a big man with dreads. Just tell him I need to talk to them." 

"Okay." She closed her notebook then looked up at him. "Don't worry. I'll get you out of this mess." She gave a small smile. 

John simply pursed lips and nodded. The legal issue was the least of his problems.

*********


	3. Chapter 3

Rodney was able to find out where the nearest police station was, only to find out it wasn't all that near. He wiped his sweaty forehead as he looked at its entrance then crossed the street and entered it. 

The place was busy with activity, its reception filled with police officers and all sorts of people, ranging from crying to staring. 

He scowled and walked ahead, circling a bench and stepping back when a person who Rodney wasn't sure was a man or a woman snapped and shouted at him, almost making him trip by extending a foot. The policeman nearby kicked the leg and he put it back under the seat. 

Rodney continued ahead, but his head soon span around when a screech reached his ears. He turned around, trying to find out what was making the noise and saw a dirty woman with crazy hair that made Ronon's look fashionable in comparison. Rodney stopped to let the policemen pass, dragging her inside. 

He swallowed and proceeded towards the woman behind a desk. 

"I, uh, need to know if you arrested someone last night." 

He nearly waved a hand in between her face and the computer screen to catch her attention. "Hello-o?"

"We arrested a lot of people last night." She finally looked up. "You'll need to be more specific." 

He sighed. "The name is John Sheppard." 

"Just a moment." She went back to her screen for a few moments. "Yep, he's here." 

Rodney was sure she was supposed to say something else afterwards, but four full seconds passed in which she just stared at him. 

He rolled his eyes. "Why?" 

She didn't even blink, making Rodney wonder if she was just a robot. But the way her face looked, a zombie would be a more appropriate description. 

"Are you a relative?" 

He crossed his arms. "No." 

She continued to stare, though Rodney doubted she could see anything through the half closed eyes. 

"Can I see him?" He spoke slowly to give her brain time to understand. 

The woman pushed the glasses up her nose. "You're not a relative." 

"So?" He was on the edge of his patience. 

"Are you a friend?" she asked in the same monotone voice. 

He rolled his eyes. "No, I'm just worried for a stranger's well-being!" 

"Your name?"

Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel. "Doctor Rodney McKay." 

"Just a moment."

Rodney rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall to wait the woman's brain cells to multiply. 

"Excuse me. Doctor?" A young woman with short dark hair appeared at his side and made him snap from his thoughts. "You are Rodney McKay?" 

He frowned. "Yes?" 

She extended an arm. "I'm Helena Brants, John Sheppard's legal attorney." 

Rodney slowly took her hand to shake. She was small, but carried herself in a tall posture that accentuated her slender form. 

"What does he need an attorney for?" He pulled back his hand.

She leaned her weight on one leg. "He's been charged with desertion and--" 

"What?" Rodney's high pitch almost made the police station go quiet. "That's ridiculous!" 

She extended a hand to quiet him. "I'm on his case and he said that you could help." She tilted her head and prompted Rodney to follow her as she started walking. "I've got a strategy, and the more witnesses I can get, the better. Were you with him during the Israel invasion?" 

Really, Rodney had no idea what she was talking about. "Uh... why are they charging him in the first place?" He sprinted for a couple steps to fall by her side. 

She turned a corner and entered a much emptier corridor. "They went over his records when he was arrested. His file came up with a big deceased label on it." She stopped by a glass window and spoke to the guard inside. "Hi, George, I need to use the room again." 

Rodney's eyes widened as things started falling into place. "Crap," he whispered. 

"Doctor--" 

"I need to speak to him." If what Rodney was thinking had happened, then they were in trouble. 

She handed a document to the guard and signed a paper. "That's where I'm taking you." She turned to Rodney and waved ahead the corridor for them to continue walking. "Then we'll need to discuss his defense." 

Rodney huffed. "If only that was our only concern..." 

She stopped and turned to him. "Look, there were a lot of cases like his, all right? We can do this." 

Rodney rolled his eyes at whatever she was talking about. "Look, I don't really care. All I want is to talk to him. In private. Is there a way you can arrange that?" 

She nodded. "Not a problem, this police station's got plenty of private rooms. But I need to be present in all conversations with my client." 

Of course she needed to be present. But the way things looked like around these parts, he didn't care all that much. She wouldn't be able to understand half of their conversation anyway. 

"Fine. Just don't... get in the way." 

She resumed walking and Rodney followed corridor after corridor, then a few sets of stairs down and more corridors. After so many turns Rodney doubted he could find his way back on his own. Finally, she led him to a small metal door with two strong guards by it. They opened it and Rodney followed her in. 

The room was minuscule and the light above was barely enough to make people's face recognizable. Sheppard was inside and cuffed to the wall, his face not of a happy camper. 

"Wow, that was fast." Sheppard's eyebrow rose. 

The lawyer sat in one chair. "Luck. He was just outside looking for you." She looked up at Rodney and seemed amused by the fact Rodney still hadn't sat down. 

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Sheppard?" Rodney finally sat on the remaining chair. 

"You mean, what _you_ have gotten us into?" he shot back. 

Rodney fumbled with his hands above the table. "Well... It wasn't really my fault. Like I said it was--" 

"Yes, yes, the Ancients left the power feedback in a loop and blah blahblah. Still, you should have _listened_ when I told you--" 

"Okay! Maybe I should have..." Rodney scowled. "Been more careful, but, really, it was very stupid of them to--" 

"Whatever, Rodney. Just explain what exactly is going on here." Sheppard shooed an invisible fly. 

Rodney flinched. "Everything indicates that this isn't exactly--" 

" _Our_ world?" 

"Yes." Rodney sighed. "I've been thinking. They were experimenting with alternate means of, uh, you know..." Rodney glanced at the lawyer.

Sheppard waved a hand. "Do the ZPM stuff."

Rodney nodded. "Yes. But it wasn't connected to transporting matter as far as I can tell. Maybe they were looking for a way to harvest the... ZPM stuff... from different... places..."

"'Mirror, Mirror' kinds of places."

Rodney half smirked. "Yes, and they wanted to concentrate it in one buffer." 

"And it caused us to end up here?" 

"Yes! Too much energy plus tear in space equal matter transfer." He snapped his fingers. "Voila!" 

"Can it be controlled?" 

Rodney sighed. "That thing didn't only transfer matter through space, it was an interdimentional tear."

"Like that bridge thing."

"Yes," Rodney's voice rose. "No wonder it wasn't stable! The stupid Ancients tried to do the same thing I did!"

John leaned closer. "Can you fix it?"

"Now that I know what it does, I _could_ give it a try, but we'll need to get back to M4G-789..." 

"We need to use the gate for that," Sheppard looked at the attorney. 

"I don't like the code speaking. What the hell are you guys taking about?" She leaned forward. 

Rodney waved an annoyed hand. "Whatever. We need to get out of here." 

Sheppard slouched back. "I don't think that's going to be so easy." He tried to cross his arms but gave up when the cuff prevented him. 

She raised a hand. "I don't want to know what you guys are involved in; I'm here to do my job." She glanced from Sheppard to Rodney. "What can you say to help his defense?" She paused. "Besides the obvious," she added softly.

Rodney really didn't really care about the legal side of things. Instead, his mind drifted to work on the alternate reality problem. 

"We'll need help to use the gate. I already tried calling them, but got nothing. They didn't know who I was." 

Sheppard nodded. "Great." 

"Maybe someone that..." He snapped his fingers and turned to the woman. "We need you to find Samantha Carter. She may be a scientist, or maybe in the military." He went back to John. "If she's as smart here as she is in our reality, we'll be able to explain everything to her."

"If they have a SGC and she's part of it, even better," John completed the thought.

Rodney waved a pointed finger at him. "Exactly." 

The lawyer raised her hand and waved it, annoyed. "Is she a key witness?"

John bit his lip before answering. "It's possible...."

"Where does she live?"

"We don't know. We can search her name on scientific articles. If she's there, then she can help us _big deal,_ " Rodney answered.

*********

Helena wasn’t really expecting to find the woman they had talked about anywhere except the psychiatric hospital, so when Samantha Carter’s name came up followed by a couple PhDs and dozens of scientific articles, her eyebrow shot up. Of course, that still didn’t rule out the fact that Sheppard and McKay were complete loons, but at least showed that they were loons that researched the subject of their obsession. 

She wondered if she should go as far as calling the woman. What good would it make to the case to actually confirm their delusions? 

Well, it would prove that they were obsessed and that, along with the psychiatric evaluation, would clear Sheppard of any responsibility over anything that happened. It would even clear him of the murder charge, no matter how many prints and DNA matches they came up with. Of course, he would need to spend most of his life locked up in a mental hospital, but that was probably for the better. 

The web page had a link with Carter’s e-mail, so Helena decided to contact her. She would have preferred a phone call to be more personal, but it would probably take days to reach her inside the government. 

She stared at the blank page for a few minutes, deciding on what to write. She started by introducing herself then went on to talk about the case. She stayed out of the specifics and briefly mentioned what she could remember of Sheppard’s strange conversation with McKay. She bit her lips trying to remember the weird acronym they had repeated several times. Zee something...

She snapped up. ZPM.

She finalized by asking for any input to help her with defending Sheppard of the accusations that were clearly unfounded due to her client’s mental status. 

She re-read the e-mail, made some minor corrections and hit send. Hopefully, Carter wouldn’t delete it at first sight.

*********

Rodney knocked on the door three times and was almost afraid it would fall off from the conditions this place had. He carefully opened it and coughed from the dust that entered his nostrils when he stepped inside the room where Teyla and Ronon were. 

"What the hell are you guys trying to do?" He coughed again.

Rodney looked through the thin layer of dust that filled the air and saw that Ronon and Teyla had cleared most of the stuff that had been spread around the place. 

"Sorry, Rodney. Ronon and I were trying to make this... place a little more comfortable while we waited for you." She dusted her hands. "Did you find him?" she asked expectantly.

Rodney waved his hands in front of his face to clear the air. "Yes." He controlled his breath no avoid inhaling more of that stuff. "And it's not good." He coughed. "Really not good." He sat on the edge of something that had once been a nice comfortable arm chair. "He's been arrested and charged with deserting the Air Force."

Ronon and Teyla shared looks.

"I do not understand."

Rodney decided to elaborate. "He's been charged with leaving the military because his records say that he's dead." He recognized something that one could interpret as condescending in his own voice. "And he's dead because _this_ is not our Earth." He waved his index finger around. "We are in an alternate reality. One that is incredibly similar to ours, but different enough to be a lot of trouble. Legal trouble for one, then there is the problem of having to go back to our own universe and not being arrested in the meantime."

Teyla stepped forward. "Will we be able to get back?"

Rodney waved a hand. "I don't know yet. But I really hope so, because otherwise Sheppard would be in trouble. He's going to be handed to the military in a few days and they're also charging him with killing the old man from the store. They've got his prints and everything. Luckily, they didn't catch me in the system. I mean, I understand they wouldn't have _your_ prints, but--"

"Rodney." Teyla lifted a hand. "Slow down. You said John is under arrest." She paused. "If we are to get back, then we will need him to be set free."

Rodney had spent his whole way back thinking of that. They couldn't simply break him out of jail because it would be too risky with only the three of them not to mention that would undermine any help from the government itself, so their best hope was finding someone that would believe and understand their situation to be able help. Someone inside, preferably with enough power to pull some strings. And, if they are lucky, let them use the top secret American government controlled alien device to travel to another galaxy. If they even had one.

Piece of cake.

"We're so screwed. What if we can't get back? What if we end up stranded here? Sheppard will be taken to jail or mental house, I apparently don't exist, you will be considered illegal immigrants without a home country and I'll spend the rest of my life thinking I screwed up majorly when I turned that stupid thing on!" 

Teyla approached him. "Rodney, it is not your fault," she said softly. "Like you said, the device was left in bad conditions and--"

"Who am I trying to fool here?" Rodney raised his voice. "It's not the first time I turned something on and caused catastrophe because of it!" His ears burned. "That was so stupid!"

"Hey." Ronon stepped forward. "Don't beat yourself up about it." 

Rodney huffed. 

"Freaking out is not going to help, McKay. It happened. Get over it." Ronon smiled. "Besides, it's not like we're going to let it come to that. We'll fight. Break him out if we have to."

"If it comes to that," Teyla added. "Until then," she said as she turned to Rodney. "We need to concentrate on the problem itself, and not on the cause."

Rodney breathed in. "Okay. Concentrate on the problem." He pointed a finger up. "Uh, problem one, I'm starving." 

"That can be easily fixed," Teyla said as she reached inside one of the vests on the floor.

Rodney grabbed the package in her hand and unwrapped it, his hands almost shaking with hunger. 

Rodney munched on his power bar and waved it around as he spoke. " _If_ we find Sam, and _if_ she can help us in some way or another, then we won't need to worry too much. In the best case scenario she's just like our Sam and is part of the Stargate Program. They could get Sheppard free and us to Pegasus, drop us on M4G-789 and it is just like the one in our universe. In that case, it also needs to be connected to our universe in some way, so we can go back to _our_ reality. It needs to be in good working condition and it can't overload like it did the last time. So, all in all, not very good odds of all that happening." Rodney took another bite. "The worst case scenario is that the program doesn't exist and that there is no gate on Earth. Then, we are in trouble. I can't send us back in any other way."

"Okay," Teyla nodded. "So, working on the assumption that there is a gate on Earth, we would need to try to contact people that could be involved in it."

"Yes," Rodney raised a pointed finger. "The attorney is working to find Sam and that's a start, but we need to broaden our search in case she can't be found. But for that, I'd need a computer."

"Do you know where to find one?" Ronon asked.

"A cyber cafe is our best bet. But, for that, we need money..."

"Which we don't have," Teyla finished.

"Is there an easy way your people use to get money?" 

Rodney rolled his eyes. "It's not like in are in Pegasus and a simple fix to the village water pump will get us points with the natives." 

"There must be something we can trade," Teyla said.

Rodney puffed. "Do you happen to have any gold necklaces? What about some diamond rings, huh?" Rodney snapped his fingers several times when an idea cropped to mind. "We need some cups and sticks." 

"Why?" Ronon asked.

Rodney smirked. "A trick. I'm gonna make a bet. A bar trick, you know."

Teyla and Ronon exchanged glances. They both shook their heads together. 

"Jennifer taught me when we got stuck at the Genii mine. We need four objects of about the same weight and height, and three flat sticks." 

Teyla looked back to Rodney with one eyebrow raised.

*********

"C'mon, how hard can this be?" Rodney tiptoed around the dumpster Ronon had gone in.

Ronon's head popped out, grease staining one cheek. "If it's so easy, then why don't you come here then?" 

Rodney grinned and pointed a finger up. "Well, because I'm the one who'll have to go back to the police station to keep tabs on Sheppard's case and we don't have any spare clothes." 

The alley was faintly illuminated by the late afternoon sun, surrounded by tall abandoned buildings. A lot of garbage and trash cans were all over the place, dirt staining the corners and graffiti on the brick walls. 

"Where's Teyla gone?"

"She was going to ask around for supplies," Ronon said as he jumped out. Rodney didn't think he had stayed in the dumpster for longer than one minute.

"She what?"

Ronon didn't look at Rodney and continued to peek inside different cans. "She said it would be our best bet."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "You don't know the people from Earth."

"It's better than stealing." Ronon turned and glared, arms wide.

"We're not stealing!"

"Trash, McKay? Fooling boys with a stupid trick?" He all but growled.

Rodney waved a finger. "That's an honest money earning trick."

"Yeah, right."

"I have it!"

Rodney turned and saw Teyla with a grin on her face and money clutched in her hand.

"How did you do that?" Rodney asked.

Teyla turned her head slightly and smirked. "I told our story to an old woman she took pity." 

"She believed you?"

"No. She eyed me with suspicion, but when I pointed to you two in this alley, she decided to help."

"How much have you got?" Rodney extended his hand and Teyla gave him the money. "Five dollars? Is that it?"

"That's what she gave me."

"Miserable old woman," Rodney mumbled. 

"Is it enough?"

Rodney nodded. "Let's hope so."

*********

Rodney handed in the money and waited for the change. Instead, the boy didn't even raise his head from the magazine and groaned something that could have been the number of the computer Rodney was supposed to use. 

"Excuse me?"

A hand rose and pointed. "Five is over there." A shock of green hair moved behind the counter, but Rodney still couldn't see any face. 

Rodney groaned and walked to the direction indicated, Teyla and Ronon following. The cafe had only few rows of computers and had only a couple of people using them. A few people more were farther away, using laptops connected to the wifi. He sat down at the far desk on the row next to the wall and started the browser. 

"I can't believe I'm reduced to using Windows."

The silence that followed clearly indicated the punch line was missed by his companions. Rodney shook his head and when Google showed up, he started typing a search for scientific articles. He paused, a smile growing in his lips. He looked over his shoulder to check on Ronon and Teyla. Their position was relatively hidden and both would be able to keep Rodney's activity from any curious eyes. 

"Keep an eye out, I don't want people seeing what I'm doing," he whispered. 

The first thing Rodney did was access the terminal's directory to hack his way into the program that controlled the timer. Rodney's smirk grew as he tapped the keyboard to add a few extra hours. 

"You know the best way to find out if the program exists here, my friends?" he asked in a low voice. "I just have to access NORAD's secret server."

"Can you do that?" Teyla leaned closer.

"Who are you talking to?" He cracked his knuckles.

*********


	4. Chapter 4

John sat down on the chair in the same small room as he was always taken to talk privately to people. This time though, there was someone already inside, sitting on the chair close to the door. John was cuffed to the wall by a rough guard and glared. When the guard left, John turned his attention to the man sitting opposite of him. He was an older man, with graying hair and glasses.

"Hi, John. My name is Doctor Ronald Wilson. Do you mind answering some questions?"

John resisted the urge to groan. He didn't really like being analyzed. He had grown accustomed to shrinks in his line of work and knew how to deal with them, but in this case John wasn't sure about his best course of action. Wilson was here for just one reason and that was to determine if John's sentence would be taken inside a prison or a mental hospital and, truth be told, John didn't like either option. 

"Sure."

Wilson adjusted his glasses and leaned forward slightly. "First, can you tell me your name?" He tilted his head and gave John his full attention.

"Don't you know that already?"

Wilson's smiled. "Just to make sure we are in the same page."

John sighed and decided to get it over with sooner rather than later. "John Sheppard." 

Wilson nodded and took the notebook on the table onto his hands. "Okay, what day is today, John?" he said as he opened it. 

"Uh," John thought for a moment. He wasn't entirely sure the dates would match in different realities. "November 17th?"

Wilson frowned slightly at John's pause. He took a pencil and held the notebook closer to him. "When did you arrive in LA?"

"Yesterday."

Wilson started scribbling notes. All John wanted was to lean closer and take a peek. 

"How did you get here?" He looked up at John from over his glasses while still writing.

Well, that was the real question. John bit his lips, considering his options. Wilson scribbled some more. John chewed the inside of his mouth trying not to appear too curious.

"That's... complicated," John finally answered.

Wilson stopped writing and raised his head. "How so?"

John sighed. He certainly didn't want a one way ticket to a mental hospital. 

"Look, normally, one uses an airplane." There. It wasn't a lie. 

"Uh-hmm." Wilson nodded skeptically. 

John tried to hide an amused smile. 

"Is that the way you came here?"

John wanted to cross his arms but the soft clatter of chains reminded him he wouldn't be able to. "Uh, yes." He nodded.

Wilson stopped writing and crossed his arms over the table. "Did you kill Joseph Clayton?" 

John shifted. "Is that the man in the store?"

The Doctor nodded.

"No," John answered.

"What is that you are wearing?"

John looked at himself. "My clothes?"

The doctor nodded. "They look like military BDUs."

"They are..." _just what I happen to wear when I'm working._ "Comfortable."

"Wouldn't jeans and t-shirt be more comfortable?" 

John didn't like the way the doctor barely moved at all while staring at him and still managing to look serene. "I'll have to agree with you." 

"But last night these seemed more appropriate." The doctor turned his head to indicate John's shirt. 

John sighed and leaned closer. "Look, I didn't kill the guy, okay. I know it looks bad and I wish I could explain. But I can't."

"You can try." Wilson tilted his head. "I'm here to listen."

John laughed in his throat. How could he explain to a psychiatrist that he had jumped not only between galaxies, but also between realities without looking crazy?

John bit his lips then sighed. "When I arrived, he was already like that," John started. "I'm sure you'll have people reporting an energy spike. There was a bright light right in front of the shop, an explosion, then everything went black. That's why we went in to investigate."

Wilson nodded.

"The window was shattered and the place was wrecked. We went in to see if there was anyone hurt inside. We found the man under a shelf and a pile of boxes. I checked his pulse and he was dead."

"You mentioned the word 'we'."

There was no reason to deny it." My friends and I. I'm sure they left prints on the fruit loop boxes. We all helped clear the area." 

Wilson stared for a moment, his face unreadable. "Where are they now?"

John shrugged. "I don't know."

"Why aren't they here to help you?" 

John shook his head. "I don't want them to get into trouble." 

Another pause. "Why would they be in trouble?"

"Well," John waved a hand. "I'm in trouble. Aren't I?"

Wilson nodded. "They could witness in your favor."

"Or be held for being accomplices." 

"Are they?" Wilson leaned back. "Accomplices?"

"We didn't kill anyone. Didn't the shop have cameras?"

"They blacked out just moments before everything happened." 

John nodded, slightly disappointed. Of course, energy spike. 

Silence extended for a few moments. 

"Do you enjoy flying?"

John raised his head, surprised by the change in subject. 

"Can you describe what you feel when you are flying?"

John sighed.

"Why did you join the Air Force?"

John focused on the door behind the doctor. He would have to give him something to make Wilson see that John was neither crazy nor guilty. John looked away, not wanting to go back to things left behind.

It hadn't been simply for flying that John had joined. He had wanted to do more. John had been craving to leave the path his father had intended for him. He had felt suffocated inside those suits, surrounded by businessmen and their smooth talks. He had forced himself into finishing college, but the real world was too much for him. He had barely been able to breathe in that life. Flying had given him freedom. The first time he had climbed inside a cockpit had felt so good he hadn't thought twice before abandoning everything. 

But his father hadn't understood. He had thought John was simply being rebellious. That John was leaving him and his dreams of a good son. His father had said bitter words and John and thrown them all back and left. John had tried to show how much he cared for what he was doing, how happy he was, but his dad had seen something else. His father had seen stubbornness to what John was supposed to be for his family. 

John swallowed and turned to the doctor. "I wanted to fly and make a difference." He forced himself in keeping eye contact. 

"Did that happen?"

John didn't know how similar the life of his double had been in this universe, so everything he said would be a risk. But it would be no use for John to end up in jail. He decided to tell his own truth instead of fabricating a probable one that belonged to another man. It was always much harder to keep a lie.

"Yes." 

_Still does._

"How?"

John looked away again, biting his lips. 

He sighed and finally looked up. "I rescued men. I flied choppers behind enemy lines and took them back home. I brought bodies back so they could be buried, and I also brought lots of men alive. Men that are now happy, living with their families. So, yes, it was worth it. Every minute of it." 

"Why did the Air Force declare you KIA?"

John exhaled. "I don't know. I didn't even know about that until the detective showed me the file."

"Where were you this whole time?"

That was the one million dollars question that John wished Wilson hadn't asked. John didn't have an answer.

John shook his head and leaned back. "I can't tell you." 

"You can't or you won't?"

*********

"Got it!" Rodney glanced around and saw people immersed in their own computers and laptops while Ronon and Teyla leaned behind him. "They have the same system as in our reality. This shouldn't be hard at all," he whispered. "I'm accessing the personnel file."

A huge list of names appeared in alphabetical order. Rodney hit search and looked for his own name, not surprised to find nothing. 

"All right. What about..." 

He typed in ' _Find_ : _Samantha Carter'_ and grinned broadly when he found her name next to a ' _Lt. Col.'_ rank.

"Aha!" 

He clicked to open her file, but it was protected by another level of security. He started typing commands and override codes, his clattering of keys joining the others in the room. 

Several minutes later, he was finally able to read her file. 

"Okay, let's see here." He pressed a finger on the screen and began reading softly to his teammates. "Samantha Carter, US Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel in charge of SG-1. Huh, really?" He raised an eyebrow. "Uh, height, weight. Hah, I knew it!" He smirked as he scanned further below. "PhDs, astrophysicist, temporal mechanics, quantum physics, gate operations, wormhole specialist, a few honorable mentions, a few world savings... What? Married?" He paused. "To Senator Jonathan J. O'Neill. Huh, that's weird." 

"Can we contact her?" Teyla asked.

"Hmm, no. It doesn't say." 

Rodney frowned as he tried to think. He made another search in the personnel file. 

_'Find: General'_. That would give him who was in charge of the base. A few seconds later a name appeared: ' _General Charles Kawalsky'_.

"Huh, I have no idea who that is."

"Rodney?" Ronon tapped his shoulder.

Rodney turned and saw Ronon tilting his head to the entrance. "What?"

"Seven o'clock."

Rodney shook his head in confusion. 

Ronon tilted his head again pointing at the entrance. 

"Oh," Rodney turned his head. "Uh-oh."

Two Air force officers were in the cafe, talking to the green haired boy. He then pointed towards Rodney's direction and the officers turned. 

"Okay, they figured me out way faster than I expected." 

"You should come with us," Samantha Carter said as she stopped before the three of them. 

Rodney smiled. "Sure. If you insist."

*********

Rodney crossed his arms as he turned to face Sam. "Seriously, the bathroom?" Rodney asked while he looked around.

"It's private enough," she said in a serious tone. She glanced at Mitchell after he finished looking inside both stalls. He gave her one nod in response. "So." She folded her hands in front of her. "Who are you and why did you hack into our servers?" 

Rodney fidgeted with his hands. "I'm Doctor Rodney McKay and I need your help." 

Sam raised an eyebrow. "My help?"

"Yes!" Rodney pointed a finger at her. "You are Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter of SG-1 and you are Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell." He pointed at him. "You," Rodney went back at Sam. "You happen to be a genius. Of course, not as much as me, but still enough to be considered one." 

Her eyebrow rose even more.

"Aren't you wondering how I know your names?" Rodney asked.

"You _were_ looking at our files," Mitchell observed while walking to stand next to Sam.

"Right. How were you able to find me so fast?"

"Maybe you aren't that much of a genius." Mitchell responded. 

Rodney crossed his arms bitterly. "I passed through all three levels of defense and the additional three once inside the server. I even broke the encrypted data with a 448-bit key symmetric algorithm."

Mitchell glanced at Sam, clearly at loss.

"You forgot the fourth barrier." She smiled.

"What?" Rodney uncrossed his arms. "There _isn't_ a fourth barrier!"

"Apparently there is," she said, her smile fading. "Now, do you mind telling me why?" 

"I already told you. We need your help." Rodney broke the facade he was wearing so far. "We are from an alternate universe. We ended up here by accident from a planet called M4G-789 in the Pegasus Galaxy. My team and I work from our base of operations in Atlantis and were investigating an Ancient laboratory. There was an overload which shifted us, not only through space, but also to a different reality." Rodney waved his hands around pointing out directions and distances with his fingers. "It directed us right to a street in the suburbs of LA and destroyed a store, killing its owner inside. Our team leader, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard was arrested close to the scene and accused of murder and desertion since he's apparently dead in this universe." 

After Rodney finished, there was a long silence. Sam's eyebrows remained up throughout the explanation and still hadn't come back down to their original position. 

"Why should we believe you?" Mitchell chipped in.

"Because... it's the truth." 

"Don't you think this story is a little... ridiculous?" 

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Seriously?" He stared at them. "My bet, you already know it's true." He crossed his arms.

"Well, maybe you just watch too much sci-fi." 

Sam smiled slightly. "Cam, I know a better way." She stepped forward. "What's the minimum unit of any physical entity involved in an interaction?" 

Rodney grinned. "A quantum."

"And what's quantum coherence?"

"Coherence is a property of waves that enables stationary interference. More generally, coherence describes all properties of the electronic correlation between physical quantities of a wave." 

"What's the maximum amount of time an artificially generated wormhole can remain open in non-relativistic conditions?"

"Thirty-eight minutes." 

Sam nodded and tried to hide a smile. 

"I guess we found the source of that energy wave." Mitchell finally said.

*********

John stared outside through the only window in the row of cells, eyes half closed. It was small and he was barely able to see the tiny patch of sky from his horizontal position on the bed, but it was a better sight then the inside provided. He wasn’t able to see any stars, but the moon was still full and illuminated the room slightly. The lamps outside blinked on and off, its mesmerizing light finally taking him to slumber. 

As usual, a random shout from somewhere brought him back awake, kicks and punches to the bars getting louder until a guard came in, cursing and yelling. John sighed wondering if he would even catch any sleep while in that jail. He rubbed his face and pressed his sandy eyes, jerking up when a hand grabbed his arm and tried to force him out of the bed. 

"Get out of my place!" a small man shouted angrily while still pushing John out.

John resisted the hands. "I was here first." 

He wasn’t sure his tone worked the exact way he wanted, but confirmation soon came when the man yanked him out with a surge of strength that sent John crashing to the floor. 

John rolled his eyes as he sat up and forced himself not to rub the sore spot on his arm. 

"Well, if you wanted the bed so much, you just had to ask nicely."

John shook his head at the lack of response and got up, sighing when he saw the other bunk bed occupied.

*********

Sam stared at Doctor McKay, her mind working on the equations necessary to transport four people to another reality. As crazy as it sounded, she had trusted McKay as soon as he started babbling about his story. Even with his annoying grins and the inappropriate glances, he seemed to be genuine about everything he said. Still, she had needed to check out his so called brilliance. 

On the previous night, Sam had been contacted by the Phoenix in orbit, reporting about a strange energy wave that had swept a neighborhood of Los Angeles and that had a very peculiar signature. Then, in the next afternoon, she had received an e-mail telling a story and containing some odd information that could indicate a leak in the SGC and then, when she was told by General Kawalsky that someone had infiltrated their secret server, she had known there had to be something to all of it. 

Now, it all makes sense.

"What kind of experiment were the Ancients doing in that laboratory?" she asked.

McKay started to move his hands again, showing that they were never still for too long. "It had to do with harvesting power from other realities in order to concentrate it in one buffer, but I don't know the details of the process because it overloaded the second I turned on the interface in order to access their results." McKay barely stopped to breathe and it reminded her of herself. "My guess is that the Ancients shut the whole thing down in the middle of an overload and didn't fix the power regulator _and_ didn't turn off the feedback into the buffer." 

"So, the second you turned it on, the process continued from where it had stopped," she finished.

McKay brought a finger up. "Exactly!" 

"But how does it lock onto the universes? Does it know the realities in which it's safe to harvest power?" 

"I don't know! It wasn't supposed to happen. I had analyzed the preliminary data we got from our downloads from the lab's database, but it didn't have a lot of detail."

She bit her lips. "Yeah, they weren't very good in keeping records..." 

McKay nodded. "Yeah. There's an understatement." 

"Okay, guys," Cam interrupted. "Why don't we continue this under the mountain? I don't think you want to discuss interdimentional mechanics inside a bathroom." 

McKay threw a thumb over his shoulder. "Yeah, but we first need to get Colonel Sheppard out of prison."

*********

John was honestly beginning to get tired of walking around in cuffs. He had already memorized every step of the way between his cell and the talking room and right now could follow it blind folded. This time, however, when he entered he was met with a face he didn't expect.

"Colonel?" John asked as he stared at Samantha Carter.

He looked at her uniform and noticed that she was not a full bird in this reality. Rodney was beside her, a grin on his face.

"That's right." She extended her hand. "I guess you know me in your reality, too." 

John went to shake her hand, but the guard stood in his way and glared. 

The Colonel smiled at the officer. "That won't be necessary," she said as she took John's hand and shook it. "You can uncuff him and then you are dismissed," she told the guard.

The guard stared at John and then at Carter before uncuffing him.

"So, I guess you found her," he glanced at Rodney and rounded the table to sit down.

She sat. "Yes. Kind of... Anyway, he told me your story." 

"Can you help us?" John leaned forward in his chair.

She folded her hands on the desk. "I wanted to talk about your reality and how to get you back." 

John nodded. "We need to get to Pegasus."

Carter thinned her lips. "That could be a problem."

"Problem? How'd that be a problem?" Rodney stuttered.

She eyed both of them in turn. "Well," she said as she leaned closer. "The address we found was incomplete."

"That's not a problem, we can give you the address." John waved his hand.

"All, right. Let’s slow down a little," Colonel Carter said placating their enthusiasm. "I know you want to get back, but it won’t be that easy." 

John nodded. It would be difficult getting their whole story confirmed and then getting the authorization and the necessary resources to make everything work. John sat back and sighed.

"For one, even if we confirm your story and even if we manage to get authorization to send you where you need to go, there is the issue of power. My superiors won’t go easily for the idea of using the power we have to send you guys to a non-charted zone."

"What do you mean?" Rodney asked offended. "Confirm? I though you believed us."

She sighed. "That’s not the point."

"She’s right, Rodney. There are proper procedures, a whole chain of command this needs to travel through."

"This is…" He slumped back. "We can’t be stuck here."

"I know," she started calmly. "And I’ll do what I can to help you."

"So you believe us?" John wanted it clarified.

"I’ve seen some evidence to corroborate your story."

John knew she believed in them. She may not know him, but he knew Samantha Carter and this version seemed to be a lot like her. She was trying to look a bit harder to sell and her act would have worked for anyone else, but not for them. She’d do what she could to try to help them.

"So," she started. "I’d need to know the very basics about your mission in Pegasus before I sell your story to the general."

*********

Ronon paced, ignoring the exasperated sigh that came from Teyla. He glared at all the passing people, especially at those that almost bumped against him. They usually stared for a few seconds, looking him up and down then continued on their way, rushing through the crowd on the street. 

He stopped by the wall of the police station and leaned against it, looking far into the horizon. There was a thin gray smoke covering the city which reminded him of Sateda. Ronon remembered Melina complaining about the respiratory problems the pollution caused and almost smiled if it wasn't for the tightness that grew with the memory. 

Ronon always had a strange twinge in his chest every time he was on Earth. It was similar to Sateda in many aspects but its people so different. Satedans had grown up under the shadow of the threat the wraith had always provided and from an early age they had learned how to fight. They were proud, powerful warriors, not failing in science either. The Satedan capital was no different to the many cities Earth had. Every time Ronon looked at Earth's tall buildings, its sky, its people, Ronon saw Sateda how it should have been if the wraith had never destroyed it. That was why the uneasiness was a hard feeling to shake while walking around these civilian earthlings. They had no idea how lucky they were. 

"You okay?" 

Ronon glanced down and saw Mitchell standing next to him, leaning on the same wall. Had Sheppard been the one asking, Ronon would know how to answer.

"Yeah."

Mitchell nodded, his smile fading. "McKay said you're from Pegasus."

That hadn't been a question. Ronon didn't know what to do with it so he just continued to stare.

Mitchell squinted under the sunlight, picking on a plant he was holding. "What's the name of your planet?"

Ronon looked at Mitchell and only saw curiosity. It was just a name. It didn’t mean anything to these people. "Sateda."

Mitchell nodded again. "What is it like?"

Mitchell was trying to make conversation, but at the same time picking for information about them. Trying to see if they are real. Ronon got that. He looked up. "It’s gone. Destroyed by the Wraith."

Mitchell nodded. "I'm sorry. Must be tough."

There were several seconds of silence. 

"These wraith," Mitchel started. "They're the bad guys in Pegasus?"

Ronon didn't look down. "Yep." 

"Do they enslave people? Destroy their homes? I mean--" Mitchell quickly added, "Do we have anything to worry about if we go there?" 

Ronon looked down and saw Mitchell's face looking up at him. "If they also exist here, then yes. You have to worry."

"How bad are they?"

"Bad."

Mitchell waved a hand. "Care to elaborate on that?"

Ronon sighed loudly. He didn’t want to talk with someone he barely knew. It wasn’t the same Mitchell Ronon knew. That one was a nice guy he had chatted with several times during his stays in the SGC. This one seemed like a nice guy too, but he wouldn’t take things for granted in this reality. 

Silence settled between them until McKay came out of the precinct. Carter nodded and tilted her head, prompting Mitchell to follow her to some distance away. Ronon watched them walk then stepped closer to McKay.

"Is she gonna help?" Ronon asked.

McKay clapped his hands together and began rubbing one against the other. "If I know Samantha Carter, and I do, then yes. She didn’t say it though. Just that she has to talk to the brass to see how they'll take the whole thing." He began waving his hands around. "If her word counts as much here as it does in our reality, then we'll probably get home. If circumstances help." 

"And John?" Teyla asked.

"Yes, the Air Force will set him free and drop the charges if our intel proves good." McKay nodded. "I don't know if they will, it will all depend on how similar both universes are, so... let's hope luck is on our side this time."

"How long till we know?" Ronon asked.

Rodney looked around and seemed to notice Carter and Mitchell were gone. "Well, I don't know, it could take hours. I told her where to find us." He pointed a finger up. "Oh, and she gave us money." He grinned. "We can eat real food."

*********


	5. Chapter 5

Sam took a deep breath and clasped her hands in front of her body, waiting for the General. 

"What have you got, Colonel?" General Kawalsky said as he entered the briefing room.

Sam followed his lead and sat down, as did Cam, Teal'c, Daniel and Vala. 

"I have found the cause of the energy wave that struck Los Angeles two days ago," she started. "As I analyzed the data, it struck me that the signature was different than anything we’ve come across before. I didn't know why at the time, but now, it all makes sense." She clasped her hands on the table. "It ties in with the security breach we had yesterday and a strange message I received in my personal e-mail."

"Did we really have a security leak?" Kawalsky asked.

"No, sir," she answered. "Cam and I went to the cyber cafe where the infiltration to our servers occurred and found the man responsible for it." She turned to the screen and activated it. "This is Doctor Rodney McKay." She pointed to the picture on the screen. "This image was taken from the cafe's security cameras and we have no record of him in any American database. We talked to him and he has a pretty amazing story." She paused for a moment. "He said he is from an alternate reality, similar to our own. Now, we have encountered people from different realities before, so we know this is possible. However in every case, the people that crossed over were, well," she smiled slightly, "different versions of ourselves, so it was pretty easy to tell. In this case though, we don't know any the people involved, but they have an explanation for that." 

The General nodded and Sam continued.

"They said that in their reality, the expedition to Atlantis _did_ happen. The Daniel in their universe was able to find the _full_ address in Antarctica and they have been exploring another galaxy for almost five years now. Colonel Sheppard," Sam said as she clicked for the next picture to appear, "has been leading the military contingent in Pegasus ever since the beginning of the expedition." She pointed at the picture. "This is the image we have of him in our universe. According to Air Force records, Major John P. Sheppard was considered KIA in Afghanistan shortly after the Israel invasion, probably because of it. They even had a DNA match. Now, the person I met was not a Major. He was a Lieutenant Colonel and he was very much alive. He is in the process of being charged with desertion because of the cross-reference with our reality."

"So," Kawalsky said. "The people that crossed over are unknown to us."

She nodded. "Yes, sir. We have nothing but their word, but," she added, "they were very convincing. McKay and I talked briefly while we drove off to meet Colonel Sheppard and had details of some events that happened in their universe and that have many things in common with our own. I want to propose a deal for them to volunteer the rest of this information in exchange of our help to find their way home."

"What kind of information?" Daniel leaned forward. 

"I didn’t find much. The drive to the precinct was short and Sheppard didn’t want to share much beforehand. They did say that their Daniel downloaded Merlin's knowledge into his brain and was able to complete the weapon that destroyed the Ori." 

Vala poked Daniel on the shoulder. "See? I told you!"

"Yes, you did, Vala." Daniel looked down, then up. "And that's great story if proven true but how do we confirm it? It seems almost too good to be true."

"Our help how?" General Kawalsky asked.

"Doctor McKay said they came here because of an accident with Ancient technology. They were exploring a planet in Pegasus and encountered a lab that apparently was made to harvest power from alternate universes and store in a buffer. The device overloaded when it was activated and sent them here. The energy charge sent them to LA and ended up destroying a shop and killing a man. Then, Colonel Sheppard was arrested and charged with the man's murder and his team is stuck here." She leaned forward. "What they need is to go to Atlantis in this universe in order to reach the planet they were in and activate the device from this end."

General Kawalsky stared in silence.

"Do you believe them?" Kawalsky finally asked.

Sam nodded. "Yes, sir. They have no reason to lie to us. If there had been a leak, what would be the point of staging this? Also, McKay and I talked and he really is brilliant. He knows what he's talking about."

"Apparently, sir," Cam chipped in, "he's their Carter." 

"Also," Sam shifted in her seat. "It's weird, sir, but he talks to me as if he's known me for years. He even called me Sam on a couple of occasions."

"Do they have the address to Atlantis?" Daniel asked with a tone Sam knew showed his eagerness.

Sam nodded. "They want to help us get there, so they can get back home."

The General stared at the screen for several moments then leaned forward. "You know that it will require the ZPM to power the gate. How could we defend Earth if you depleted our only power source for the chair?"

Sam thinned her lips. "Yes, sir. That could happen. But," she added. "I don't know how much power we have left in the ZPM we have. For all we know it could be depleted in our next attack, or maybe it already doesn't have enough power to establish any link with another galaxy at all." She leaned forward and clasped her hands on the desk. "But if we go to Atlantis, sir, we could find more. They said they have been living there for five years, they must have found a power source to power up the city."

" _They_ could tell us how to find more," Daniel chipped in. 

"And," Vala added. "We have the chance to go to the lost city of the Ancients, who knows what we can find there?" Her eyes almost sparkled. "I mean, not only ZPMs, but weapons and technology... and with their help... they might know where everything is already! We'd have a massive head start!"

"Exactly," Kawalsky said. "Who knows what's out there? The last time you went to another galaxy, you brought the Ori on us."

" _That_ was an accident." Vala pointed a finger up. 

"Anyway," the General continued. "We should hear some more intel from them before we jump through the gate. I want to know how their expedition happened and the main events they had to face from day one. We need to be prepared and I’d like to talk to them to see if _I_ believe it too."

Everyone nodded.

"Bring them into the mountain. I'll arrange the papers to transfer Sheppard to Air Force custody."

*********

Ronon munched on his burger, wondering why the hell didn't the mess hall in Atlantis serve it. He was normally surrounded by so much of the Earth culture, he sometimes felt himself wishing for some Satedan air. But when it came to food, he found himself really excited to learn more. Atlantis food was good, but it had never been _this_ good. 

"Would you mind? Your chewing is too loud!" Rodney complained.

Ronon snorted. "You criticizing the way I eat, McKay?"

"At least I'm not behaving like a person that has never seen burger in life!"

Ronon smirked. "I never saw burger in life." 

Teyla shook her head and looked around, apparently still unsure why they were given forks and knives if they weren't supposed to use it. She smiled as she held the sandwich with both hands, taking a large bite from her smaller cheeseburger, the sound she made a clear statement that she approved the taste just as much as Ronon did. 

According to McKay, this was the typical American food. He had said they ate this everyday of their entire lives and it was the reason most of their population was seriously overweight. The way everyone looked inside the restaurant, Ronon wasn't about to disagree with that statement. 

He ended up catching sight of some really slim figures (Ronon wondered if they had come from some kind of torture prison when he caught a glimpse of one of the girl's stomach), but those women were eating from such a tiny bowl of salad, Ronon hoped that was just the appetizer. When he mentioned the table to McKay, he had said it was a very normal behavior from some people to simply quit eating altogether. McKay had said those kinds of people were nut cases that usually ended up in the hospital, whichever kind was more appropriate, and Ronon found himself heartily agreeing. No one is a sane state of mind would deliberately stop eating. 

"So, in order to follow the rules, your people have to stop eating?" Ronon asked, still confused.

"What? No. It's not a rule. Generally, famous people are very slim, and other people want to look like them, even if it sacrifices their health. It's just a stupid thing they believe. Some take it to the extreme, like them." He waved his burger to the table of tiny women.

Ronon shared a look with Teyla and saw his expression reflected on her. These Earth people sometimes didn't make much sense. 

"Because we don't have many real dangerous enemies, people create other kinds of villains." Rodney waved at Ronon's tray. "Like burgers," he said, his mouth full. 

"They think burgers are enemies?" 

"I'm not saying it makes sense," Rodney said after he saw Ronon's face. 

Ronon gave up trying to understand Earth and just worried about chewing his food.

*********

John was jerked awake by a foot kicking his boots. He raised his head from lying against his knees and stared up. The blur of a massive man slowly came into focus, looking down at John almost puffing smoke out of his nostrils. John leaned his head back against the wall, stretching his bent legs and groaning at the aches on his back. Maybe sleeping sitting down on the hard floor hadn’t been his brightest idea.

"Am I in your spot too?" John mumbled as he waved a hand towards the wall behind him. 

The man crossed his big arms across his chest. "Yeah."

John rubbed his face. "Look, there are three more walls for you to lean on." 

He looked up at the giant in front of him, John’s head almost touching his back. He raised his eyebrow, not really liking where this was going. 

"Yeah, but that one is already warm," the man uncrossed his arms and flexed his fingers, their snapping loud enough for John to hear. 

Yes, he was definitely not liking the direction.

John waved across the cell. "I think that bed is much more comfortable." John brightened at his own suggestion. "And it’s also warmed up." 

The man turned his head, but soon returned. "I like the floor." He pointed down at John. "I like _that_ floor." 

John sighed. Seriously, would no one let him stay wherever he wanted? He glanced around the cell, seeing smirking men shooting looks at John. Another, smaller man, was biting his lips and didn't look as happy as the others. His eyes widened under John's gaze and then moved to the man in front of John, lowering soon after. Tiny man looked like he was having a tick and started moving his fingers, clenching and unclenching his hand. 

John knew that if he simply let Biggie have his corner he would be opening a space for more bullying later. Of course, John was hoping his stay wouldn't be long enough for that to become a problem, but he also wished Biggie would stop making Tiny look so nervous for just being across the cell.

Whatever internal debate John was having soon came to an end when Biggie felt John had taken too long trying to decide. Next thing he knew, John was being held above the floor by his neck, face flushing and struggling to breathe. John grabbed Biggie's bulky arms and tried to pry them away, only managing to whiten the red skin and make a few veins pop on the man's biceps. A squeaky sound exited John's lips as his throat was squeezed and black spots started to dance his sight. The spots increased in size, nearly closing his field of vision when he felt his body being thrown across the room, slamming against the bars with a cry that never made out of his starved lungs and an explosion of light behind his eyes. John slumped to the floor, vaguely aware of a commotion inside the cell but too busy fighting off the darkness to care.

*********

John woke up to a haze of people around him. Through half lidded eyes, he saw grey ceiling passing above him, lights blinding him and making his head spike with pain. He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, turning his face to the side. There was some turning around which made his stomach churn with nausea. He felt a gentle squeeze on his hand and a soothing voice speaking somewhere above his head. He tried to open his eyes again to look at the source of the words, but they appeared to be made of lead.

"Te'yl...?" 

"Yes, John. We are here."

The next time he found himself awake enough to pry his eyes open, he had to squeeze them back close at the luminosity. He decided to simply leave them like that, almost smiling at the comfort of bed and pillows. Then he remembered a prison cell. No. It hadn't been an actual prison. Although he remembered thinking he was eventually going to end up in one. He frowned wondering how he got from under arrest to comfortable in bed. He decided he should figure it out by simply opening his eyes.

He saw a concrete grey ceiling, then his eyes darted to concrete grey walls to finally rest upon his team around his bed. He frowned in concentration for a moment, then, as memories flooded back into his brain, he imagined he must have been moved to Cheyenne Mountain. 

Teyla smiled. "John, how are you feeling?"

"Hmm, a small headache," John tried to say, but found his voice husky. 

"Here" she said as she gave him a cup of water with a straw. "The doctor said your voice shall return in a few days. You bruised your larynx."

"What happen'?" he asked, still annoyed by his voice. 

"You decided to pick a fight with a giant in your cell, almost got choked to death, then got flung across the cell and got a concussion when you hit your head on the bars." Rodney crossed his arms annoyed as if it all had been John's fault.

John frowned. 

Teyla reached for his arm. "Do you want me to call the nurse for your headache?"

"Are they going to help us?" John changed the subject to more important matters than a headache.

"Yes, first they want to make sure you are healed fine, then they want to interview you and the rest of us to know details of the Atlantis expedition." 

John pinched his nose. He let his heavy arm drop and looked at Ronon.

Ronon leaned forward in his chair. "They want to know what they could come across once they get into Pegasus."

John nodded and closed his eyes. He heard the nurse arriving then felt his headache start to dissipate at the same rate his sleepiness increased. John sunk into the pillow. He really wanted to continue the conversation, ask about this reality's SGC, if they could be trusted, what their plan of action would be, but each question that popped into his head seemed farther and farther away until he finally gave into sleep. 

When he woke up again, John felt his throat was still painful. He sat up in bed and looked around, seeing no one. The three chairs were unoccupied and one had an empty mug that smelled like coffee and another one had a folded blanket. He looked at his arms and noticed he didn't have an IV anymore. He was about to call a nurse when he heard two distinct voices coming from the corridor.

"I just don't think it tastes the same."

John smiled at Rodney's morose tone.

"I think it's fine. Better than the stuff they served in the mess hall last Sunday," Ronon said in his gruff voice.

"Mmm, I don't even know what that was."

Their voices were getting louder and soon the three members of his team strolled into the infirmary. John grinned at their sight.

"I guess it was that rabbit from M2S-Z89 mixed with that planet's greenish sauce."

Teyla raised an eyebrow. "I thought it was pork and smashed broccoli," she said surprised.

"What?" Rodney exclaimed. "Nononono, it was beef and spinach."

"Actually," John interrupted. "Lieutenant Barros in charge of the kitchen told me it was a Pegasus version on tofu burger mixed with the veggie version of… something." 

They all raised their eyebrows at the revelation and shared glances. John smirked.

"Seriously?" Rodney took his mug and crashed down on his chair. "I ate tofu? Willingly?" He grimaced. "You really should put that Lieutenant in a new post. He sucks as a cook." 

John snorted. He heartily agreed with Rodney. "I thought about laundry, but then I was afraid he would turn all my underwear pink." 

Teyla squeezed John's leg. "I see you are feeling much better, John." 

"My throat feels almost normal and the headache is gone." 

The corner of Teyla's eyes turned upwards. "That is very good. I shall get the doctor so you can share the good news." 

The doctor that came was a short woman with medium length light brown hair. She came in smiling and with a stethoscope around her neck.

"Hello, Colonel. I'm Doctor Frasier. How are you feeling today?"

He beamed. "Pretty good."

She extended her hands to touch his neck. "I see your voice is almost back. Any pain when speaking?" She gently probed him.

John shook his head. "Not really."

"Nevertheless, I would like you to take it easy." She held her stethoscope. "The concussion wasn't as bad as it looked and the full night of recovery was enough to make it subside. However, you'll be experiencing headaches on and off for a few more days. Just drop by when they come on. Also, your throat may be feeling better but no long speeches for a couple more days. The region is still a little sore." 

"Sure, Doc." John smiled.

He leaned back as she finished examining him, breathed in and out when he was told so, had his heart listened, then let her put a cuff around his arm. 

"Okay, Colonel. Looks like you have no good reason to stay here in my infirmary. I'll write my report releasing you, but I'll send a note to the General asking him to wait an extra day for the interview he wants to do." 

John smiled. "Thanks."

"Okay, I'll get the nurse to bring your clothes." She patted his upper arm then left. 

The first thing John did was to take a shower. Then, he felt his stomach rumbling and decided where his next stop should be.

"I guess I could use some food," he said.

"Well, if you're gonna eat, then I recommend you take the eggs. They are _exceptional_." 

He exited the infirmary and noticed the guards that started following his team.

*********


	6. Chapter 6

After they had eaten, they were told that the members of the team would be having separate interviews to share the information they had. John was escorted back to his assigned quarters after an only brief encounter with Ronon, Rodney and Teyla. It had been established minimum contact with each other so as to not taint each individual’s interview. It was a very nice move from the general because that’s what John would do in their position. The time the team had together was just enough for them to see that they were all right and since none of the code words were used, it meant everything was in good order. 

This left John a little worried because he didn’t want to tell _everything_ in the interviews. This might be the SGC, but it was _another_ SGC and John was very uncomfortable sharing so much intel without knowing what they would do with it. John didn’t even know if they would help his team. 

There was a lot of vital information that would have to be kept out of the interview. John figured Ronon and Teyla were sensitive enough stay in the basics, Ronon wasn’t the talking type anyway, but John worried that Rodney usually got a little too happy when he started talking. Of course, Rodney wasn’t stupid. John trusted Rodney’s genius would tell him that alternate realities could have very distinct individuals even though they looked the same. They didn’t know anyone there. They couldn’t just trust everyone all out front. 

There was also the fact that saying the wrong things would make them reconsider helping the team out of distrust or fear. There had been a time in which the IOA had been very wary of the expedition having ended up in a war zone. If they had an IOA here and if they were the same bureaucrats then they’d probably react the same when they figure out Atlantis city could be under siege from a whole other legion of bad guys. It seemed they already had their hands full with the Ori. 

The fact that the only way to finish this war was in Atlantis was a very good advantage the team had on their side. So, if all went bad, he would just need to reinforce that and say the addresses they were looking for were there. And in order to do so, he would need to _not_ tell about the Ancient interference. If he told them that the glowy guys had simply shown up and told them the answer, they could just want to stay on this side of the gate, screaming at the sky, hoping that the Ancients would have the sensitivity to do the same from this end. They could shout their throats raw for all John knew. The Ancients would never expose themselves that much. 

John couldn’t forget that IOA being IOA and military being military they also wanted to exploit the advancements and the Ancient’s technological superiority. That was another good focus. John had no doubt that Rodney would be glad to tell them all about that part.

The Wraith was an unavoidable subject. He would need to tell them enough information to get them prepared because there could be Wraith in Atlantis or in M4G-789. Who knew how screwed this universe was? 

They'd want to know how the expedition came to be and John didn't see any problems in telling them. However, he couldn't touch any subject regarding experimentation or genetic manipulation. It was none of their business. It would also be better to not mention the Replicators. Although John figured he should write down a more detailed report after he had definitive proof that his team would get back home. If this universe wanted to explore Pegasus, it'd be better if they knew some things even if they might turn out differently. 

These thoughts flooded through John's brain for a long time while he lay awake in darkness. After a couple of hours of not getting any sleep, his head was killing him. Looking at the time, he decided to take the pain reliever Doctor Frasier had given him in case of migraines caused by the concussion. It didn't take much longer after that for him to finally fall asleep.

*********

The first day of interview (and John worried about the part that said _first day_ ) started early. John sat down at the chair at end of the small room, facing Colonel Carter and a camera. 

"I hope you don’t mind if we record this. This information could be very valuable to us."

"Sure."

"Let’s start with a simple Q&A about your personal information so we can compare it with your counterpart in this universe." When John nodded his understanding, she continued. "What’s your name and branch of service?"

"I’m Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, United States Air Force, service number 532147."

"When and where were you born?"

"I was born in Maryland on January 22nd, 1970.

She looked down at the file before her. "Who were your parents?"

"Patrick and Mary Sheppard."

"Do you have any siblings?" she asked as she looked back up.

John nodded. "One brother, David Sheppard.

"Are you married?"

"I’m divorced."

"What’s your ex-wife’s name?"

"She's currently known as Nancy Campbell."

"Are you active in the military?"

"Yes."

"Where are you currently stationed?"

"Atlantis Base in Pegasus."

"And what’s your assignment?" 

"I’m Base Commander and team leader."

"And what’s your team’s designation?"

"SGA-1."

"Okay." She leaned in closer. "Tell me about the members of your team."

It was an open question which meant she was searching for details. John took a deep breath before starting.

"Uh, McKay is the science officer in my team. He’s also the Lead Scientist of the base and a genius that saves our asses more often than it would be healthy for his ego and our ears." She smiled at that and John continued giving Rodney’s credentials. "He’s been part of the program for a long time, worked in Area 51 and before joining the expedition has worked a couple of times in the SGC as a consultant for the Air Force alongside our Colonel Carter." Which would explain the reason he was so at ease with her. John figured she was probably a little puzzled about the way Rodney treated her. "There is Ronon Dex. He’s from a planet called Sateda in Pegasus, one of its very last survivors, former military in his homeworld with the rank of Specialist. After the destruction of Sateda he was implanted with a tracking device and made a runner, which is kind of a training exercise the Wraith use to hunt down humans."

"And these Wraith are hostile?"

"Yes, very. They implanted a subspace tracking device on his back and he had to run ahead of them for seven years before my team found him and removed it. He’s an excellent tracker, fighter and survivor. He can adapt to any environment without any trouble and had to live out in the wilds for a big part of his life without being able to stay in the same planet for more than a few hours before Wraith showed up. He’s an expert in arms, hand-to-hand combat and Wraith tactics." Basically, Ronon was the guy no one should piss off. John held a smirk. "Teyla Emmagan is from Athos, also in Pegasus. The Athosians were the first allies we found there, still in our first day of expedition. She was their leader. She’s an expert in trading, interplanetary diplomacy and knows a great number of different Pegasus cultures and planets, all skills she acquired while being the leader of her people. She’s also a prime fighter and just as good in hand-to-hand combat as Ronon is, able to tackle a bigger opponent without any trouble at all." Saying that made John realize just how proud of his team he was. 

"So you’re the only member of your team that is from Earth’s military." 

John nodded. "Yes, but the chain of command is very clear among the members of my team. They’re used to it in their own worlds."

"How long have you been together?"

"Five years. Ronon’s been in the team for four." Sometimes it felt they had been a team for their entire lives.

"Where was your team before you ended up in this universe?"

"We were in M4G-789, an uninhabited planet on the edge of Pegasus Galaxy that was apparently used by the Ancients to conduct experiments related to harvesting energy. You’ll have to ask McKay for details. We were there for several hours while Doctor McKay investigated the main laboratory. It looked like the whole place had been left in fairly good conditions. No controls were missing or broken and the preliminary tests showed that the Ancient interface was working. McKay turned it on to gather more intel from its databanks. It worked fine for a few hours until it suddenly overloaded. There was a bright light and when we woke up, we were in the middle of a street."

"Where?"

"Somewhere in LA. The street was dark, all the lamps were broken and the whole front of a store near our position was in shards. We entered to investigate and try to find out to which planet we had been moved since it couldn’t be M4G-789. We found a pile of shelves and products and noticed there was a man under it. We moved to uncover him but it was too late, he was already dead. That was when we noticed that we were on Earth. When we heard the police, we retreated from the scene because we had no identification and were heavily armed. Being caught would pose a threat to the security of the program."

"But you _were_ caught."

John nodded. "I was arrested while I attempted to find a phone to contact the SGC. By that time we still didn’t know we were in an alternate reality. There was a big bar fight and everyone was taken to the precinct where I was identified. I requested to talk with my superior officers here on Earth, but they didn’t find any of the names I gave them. When the detective showed me my own file I connected the dots and realized we had been shifted to another reality. You came soon after I was charged with deserting the Air Force since this reality’s John Sheppard was KIA." 

She nodded. "Okay. Anything you want to add to your current report?"

John shook his head. "That’s pretty much it."

"All right then. Since Doctor Frasier recommended your interview to be short, I’ll leave it at this for today and we’ll resume tomorrow at eight hundred."

*********

John was escorted back to the interview room early the next day. The layout hadn't been changed except for the fact that Colonel Carter appeared to have more papers and files. 

"Okay, Colonel. We'll continue from where we left." She crossed her legs. "You finished yesterday's interview giving us details of your latest mission. Today I want you to start from the very beginning." John nodded. "How did you first join the expedition?"

That seemed like such a long time ago. It was hard to forget that day. He had gone from flying choppers in a remote outpost to finding out there were real aliens out there and that he should follow an international team of scientists and military to explore a whole new galaxy. And all because of a few special As, Cs, Gs and Ts in his DNA. 

What would have happened if he hadn't sat in that chair? It had been such a random act to perform. 

John went on talking about how they got to Atlantis and the condition the city had been found. He made a mental note to remember later about a possible city shield failure when they get to this reality's Atlantis. Without Elizabeth to go back in time and warn Janus to install the failsafe, the city could be flooded fairly quickly. 

Another point he only considered during the interview was that maybe the Wraith in this reality were still hibernating so may not pose so much of a threat. When he got to that point he made his participation in the Wraith's awakening clear and that without these events Pegasus Galaxy could still have several decades with low Wraith activity. 

He proceeded towards their search for power and their period cut off from Earth, culminating with the siege of Atlantis, finding a new ZPM and reestablishing contact with the Milky Way. By the end of it, his throat was beginning to bother him. Carter, sensing the change in John's voice, decided to leave it for the day and resume on the next.

*********

Breakfast the following day followed smoothly after a good night of sleep. He hadn't had any headaches the day before and, while his throat had hurt a little by the end of the interview, it was better already. Doctor Frasier was happy with how everything was healing and cleared him to eat any kind of food. 

Colonel Carter started the third, and hopefully last, day of interview questioning about the affairs in John's version of the SGC. He told her about the leadership, SG1 and she took that bait to start on the Ori. 

John knew enough about the war thanks mostly to the brief time he had been assigned to the SGC, back when the Ancients had retaken control of Atlantis. Before and after that period, he had always read most SG1 reports because he liked to keep updated on the problems of his own home galaxy and because he needed to know which ships were occupied in case Pegasus had a bigger emergency. John squeezed his brain and let the memories pour down in words.

"A big victory on our side was when Daniel Jackson downloaded Merlin's knowledge into his brain and built his weapon." John went on." It was sent to the Ori galaxy through the supergate. It did work and destroyed the Ori, but it didn't, however, destroy the Priors. They continued to obey their masters' last orders."

She leaned closer in obvious interest. "You mean the Sangraal?"

The name sure rang some bells. "That's right." 

"We've been to most planets King Arthur went, but couldn't find the weapon. There are a few addresses missing."

"Yes. Daniel Jackson found the missing addresses in Atlantis."

She tried to hide a smile. "Do you know the symbols?"

John barely even knew the symbols of planets from Pegasus that he had visited. 

"Well, we only work in Pegasus, so..." He smiled apologetically. 

She nodded. "Do you remember how the addresses were retrieved?"

"Yes, they were given to him by the woman in the hologram room." Carter tilted her head and John went on to explain. "It's a room in Atlantis where you can interact with a representation of the city's databank. It's aimed to teach children about the basics of Ancient history."

She raised her eyebrows. "So he just had to go and ask?"

"Basically, yes."

*********

After all interviews were conducted with each member of the team, they were finally authorized to spend time together again. Apparently all their versions matched in the way should and the General left promising he would _deliberate_ with the president and the joint chiefs. John wondered if that was a good thing. 

They visited their new shared bedroom because it looked like the SGC wanted to free some of those extra they had been using when they were kept apart. After that, they went to the mess hall and spent hours there talking nonsense. John was pretty satisfied. He couldn't remember the last time he had simply hung out with his team without interruptions. Their hours together had started running thin during the last few months, with Teyla having a family and Ronon and Rodney being in a relationship. John often ended up spending most time alone or working.

"Well, the general didn't mention the IOA," Ronon said.

"Good point. But knowing those guys, they'll pop in very soon," John reminded him.

Rodney groaned loudly beside him. "I wish they'd just leave us alone for once."

That feeling was shared by the whole team. 

"Couldn't they _deliberate_ over the phone?" Rodney complained while he chewed his food.

Teyla swallowed her egg. "Some things are better shared in person, Rodney."

"Yeah, c'mon, Rodney," John said as he waved his fork. "It's a pretty big decision for them. You remember how it was."

"Exactly!" Rodney raised both hands. "I remember how it was. We took _months_ to prepare everything. Weeks and weeks of decision making, paper pushing and putting together all the resources necessary! Who knows how long _they_ will take! One would figure that all the advance information would accelerate the process!"

Ronon attacked his steak with a fork. "It's been one day, McKay." 

"I'm just saying--" He sighed. "I just wish they could simply dial the gate and take us to Atlantis without all this waiting around. What if... what if we never get back?" His shoulders sagged.

"We will," John assured. "I'm sure we made a very convincing speech. Just stay positive."

Rodney puffed. "I wish I could." He threw his fork and knife down. 

They ended up spending the day waiting around without any news. And then the next one.

Rodney's nervousness was beginning to pass on to John.

*******  
**

John woke up with an alarm blaring. He snapped up and looked for his team, seeing Ronon and Teyla already on their feet. Rodney was still on his bed, groaning with a pillow over his head. 

"What's going on?" John asked.

Teyla shook her head. "We do not know."

John waited in bed for the alarm to die down but then got to his feet, worried about the fact that the alarm was still going on full force after several moments. His concerns were materialized when the walls shook and dirt rained on them. 

"Crap. That can't be good." 

John ran to the door and tried to hear what was going on outside. Several moments passed until he heard distant gun shots and a loud bang that sent more dust descending from the ceiling. 

"We're under attack?" came Rodney's squeak from the bed. 

"Apparently so."

John hurried to put on his boots and glanced at his team, seeing all of them do the same. Ronon was the first one done and was by the door, listening intently to the noises outside. John approached him.

"Sounds like the corridor is clear," Ronon said. He opened a slit of the door and peeked outside. "Clear," he said softly before slipping outside. 

The soldiers that were supposed to be standing guard were gone and the corridor was empty. John looked at both sides and wished he had a gun. By the look the rest of his team had, they also shared the sentiment. The shooting was starting to get louder and now John was also starting to hear undistinguished shouts and yells. They started going towards the direction they were coming from, John in the lead with Ronon. 

"Great, why are we always going _towards_ the gunfire?" Rodney complained softly from behind.

As they walked, John could hear the sounds of the battle getting heavier, walls shaking with explosions and gun fire. They slowed down and stopped by an open lab door. Ronon crouched and risked a glance inside, nodding afterwards. He entered the room, followed by John and the rest of the team, and started looking at the shelves and tables. 

"Lee?" Rodney's near yell had John's heart jumping and he snapped around going for his absent thigh holster instinctively.

John groaned in frustration and knelt down to look at the scientist under the table. "You okay, doc?"

Lee nodded nervously.

"Do you have a gun?" 

The man shook his head. "N-no. T-this is a lab for God's sake! W-why would I-I have a gun?"

A crashing noise came from somewhere ahead in the corridor and a yell followed. Lee flinched.

"Okay, doc. Do you know what's going on?"

Lee shook his head again. "N-no. Oh my God! W-we were ordered to-to evacuate. How am I supposed--" 

"Doc!" John called softly. Lee stopped babbling and looked at him. "Just stay calm, all right? Where are our weapons?"

"Uh... probably in the secondary armory."

"Right." John stepped closer. "Do you know the way out?" 

"Y-yes, it's on the way t-to the armory, b-but... I-I was..." He looked up at John.

John nodded. "We'll take you there." He extended a hand. 

Doctor Lee took it and stood up. "I-it's... I was... uh...." He breathed deep. "It's, uh, that way." He waved a hand towards the way they had come from.

"Okay, stay behind me. After you get out, activate the mountain lock down. We can't risk anything dangerous getting out."

"W-what about all the people? T-they'll be stuck here."

"Doctor, the longer those exits stay open, the more likely whoever is attacking us will get out and attack people outside, do you understand?"

Lee visibly swallowed. 

"Stay behind me," John said as he started making his way back to the corridor.

*********


	7. Chapter 7

John walked briskly ahead, stopping briefly at each corner before continuing. Ronon was right beside him the whole time and John could hear Lee's labored breathing at the back of his head. The noises were getting dimmer and the battle seemed to be staying behind. 

A mental display of the mountain told John that the gunshots were coming from the center of the base. Whatever was attacking them must have come from the gate. John wondered how that was possible, knowing that they must have an iris identical to the one on their own Earth. 

They had soon reached a long ladder going above, the door leading to it completely open. John stepped in and looked above, seeing flickering lights but no imminent sign of danger. They were a long way down, but he knew this would lead straight to the surface. The passage was narrow but Lee appeared to be able to fit in without problems. John stepped back and let the scientist in.

"Okay, doc. Here you go. Don't forget to activate the lockdown once you get to the surface. We'll try to do the same from here if no one else does it before."

"W-wha-you are not coming?" Lee stuttered.

John shook his head. "We gotta find out what's going on." 

Lee swallowed and went into the tunnel. The scientist turned back briefly, his eyes brighter in the dim light, then disappeared above. 

John closed the door. Rodney shooed John away and tapped some commands to the pad beside it, making it beep and lock. 

"Okay, the armory is this way," John said as he started walking again.

They arrived a minute later. John pressed the command to the door and growled in frustration when it flashed a red light at him. "C'mon!"

"Let me." Rodney entered the space in front of John and tapped a few different keys. "Dammit!" He sighed then started trying to pry the panel open. "I need a..." He snapped his fingers. "Something like a pin or..."

Ronon removed a long clip from his hair. "Will this do?"

Rodney eyed the object then looked up at Ronon. "Exactly how many things do you have in your hair?"

Ronon just shrugged. 

"Right." Rodney put the pin into the hole where the security card was supposed to go. He pressed it and moved it inside for a few moments until the door slid open. "Aha." 

John hurried inside the small room and started going over the shelves. He picked up a vest, a P90 with some clips for it and locked his thigh holster on his leg. Ronon had taken his gun and was swirling it on his finger and then placed it on his holster. Teyla had her vest and another P90, as did Rodney. They all took as many spare clips as they could.

They were turning back to the corridor when the lights started flickering again. They waited a few moments for them to settle down, but everything soon descended to darkness.

Rodney groaned. "Great."

"Just what we need." John went back into the armory and tapped around the shelves for a few flashlights. He turned on his and gave the others to his team. "Here. Now, we need to figure out what's going on and how much of the base has been compromised."

"Well, I think it's safe to say that the power has been compromised." Rodney pointed at the ceiling.

"Maybe they just turned off the lights to have tactical advantage." Which reminded John of something. He went back to the shelves and started looking frantically. "Where the hell are they?" He tiptoed on the top shelf. "Found them."

"Found what?"

"Night goggles." John took one for each member of the team and put on his, flickering off his lamp and placing it in his vest. 

"I hate these things. I can never see a thing," Rodney complained.

"Just be careful not to bump into any of us," John whispered as he made it out of the room. 

John walked back through the same corridor, the bangs and voices much nearer than they had been before. One hundred feet ahead, they turned right, then soon followed left. The shaking was getting stronger and dust was now peppering on their heads. John jarred to a halt at a corner, muffled voices coming from nearby followed by heavy thumps on metal. 

"We found another blocked door, sir," a strange voice said.

Faint steps approached then came to a stop. "Blast it," and eerie voice responded. 

John crouched and peeked around the wall. There was a blast door blocking the middle of the corridor. More knocking later, the voice was back.

"Make way."

There was a final tapping and feet walking away. 

"Crap." John raised and looked back at his team. "Get back and brace yourselves." He hurried back the way they came. "I think they're blowing up the blast doors with something."

"But how? Those doors are--"

John pushed Rodney forward. "Not now, Rodney. Move!"

They scuttled down the passage, John hurrying them from behind. An explosion shook the ground violently and white took over his goggles. John bumped on Rodney, pushing him ahead.

"Move, Rodney, around the corner!"

He could hear heavy feet marching through the hall, the ominous voice commanding them forward. John knelt down behind the wall and glanced at his team. Teyla was crouching down at the opposite corner, Rodney behind her, and Ronon was standing behind John, his blaster already aimed at the corridor they had come from. John narrowed his sight on the aim and waited until whoever was marching to get nearer. 

Light brightened ahead and all the black and green turned to white. John removed his goggles and tossed them on the ground, squinting to see past the glow. He distinguished shapes of the marching soldiers then saw the staff from which the light was coming from. He blinked teary eyes until he made out the blur of a Prior. 

John fired his weapon and the roar of gunfire took over the corridor. Teyla was bursting rapid successions while Rodney kept his firing to short but continuous sprays of bullets. Bright red tinged the black and white illumination and made several soldiers fall. The others behind were scrambling past the fallen comrades, firing their staff weapons. 

The corridor was narrow and John's team had the better ground. The soldiers kept falling and piled on top of each other while the ones in the back pushed through to get in the front. They were too many for the team's limited ammunition, but John felt they could make a significant dent on their numbers. 

Energy burst towards him and buzzed close to his ear. John ducked his head and breathed out a relief when he figured out his head was still attached to his neck. He went back to firing and narrowed his eyes when he saw a huge blue hue take over the corridor. Red blasted on it and dispersed while the P90 bullets simply fell to the ground when they reached it. 

"Crap," Rodney breathed out. "They have a force field?"

John bit his lip. That was just great.

"Fall back!" John yelled above the continuous fire of the staff weapons which somehow managed to pass through. 

John rolled past the open corridor to the side where Teyla and Rodney were. Ronon jumped behind him, growling and insisting on firing his gun. The team scurried down the passage, the light from Prior dying out, but not disappearing until John turned another corridor. John heard the Prior command his troops to follow and cursed at the darkness. He had left his goggles on the floor. Not wanting to risk turning on his lamp, he felt his way around, following the labored breathing of his teammates. He tripped on something on the ground and held onto the wall for balance. 

He carefully trotted ahead, feeling the tip of his boot touching something soft and person-shaped. He stepped over them and didn't hear any tripping from neither Teyla nor Rodney and figured they must have their goggles on. Ronon was behind John and sounded like he was also having problems seeing his path. 

John's senses were sharper in the darkened environment and he didn't have problems following Rodney's footsteps, even when they turned around a couple of corners. John figured the lack of light to be a sign that the Ori weren't following, but he stayed tuned to his senses, the knot in his gut increasing the longer they walked around in darkness and silence.

They encountered bodies thrown around the floor from time to time, and that slowed down their progress considerably. He imagined Teyla and Rodney must have realized John's and Ronon's blindness and slowed down at those moments. 

"Rodney," John whispered as he felt him closer. "Do you know where we're going?"

"If my mental map of the mountain is correct, we should be going to the control room," Rodney whispered back. "There'll be ladders just up ahead, think you can climb down?" 

John nodded absently. "Yeah."

They stopped and John heard a metallic noise going down and Rodney's breathing following the same way. He tapped his way around and held on the handle of a ladder, following Rodney and Teyla and sensing Ronon behind. They arrived five floors below, followed two brief corridors then stopped. 

John heard cloth shifting and Rodney's breathing got one feet farther. There was a faint clang of metal and more clothes brushing followed by muffled footsteps. Undistinguished low voices spoke from beyond what John figured was a door then stopped. A rhythmic thump resonated down the corridor and an answer echoed from the other side. 

"Who's there?" Rodney asked in a controlled whisper.

When no response came, he went back to tapping the metal and John recognized the rhythm of Morse code echoing the universal sound of SOS. 

There was a loud clang of metal before light started filtering through a gap on the floor. When the door opened completely, John squinted through the bright light on his eyes until he was able to recognize the control room faintly illuminated by five lamps. 

"Thank God!" Rodney breathed out in relief. 

John walked in and the door was closed behind them.

"How did you guys make it here?" Mitchell asked. 

"We walked," Rodney answered.

"We encountered some soldiers along the way, but they stayed behind," John reported. "What happened?"

Carter came in from a laptop she had been immersed in. "They were able to override our iris somehow. The lockdown froze on us for a few moments, but I was able to get it up before they managed to cut the power." 

"How many?" Ronon asked.

Carter's eyes were darker in the dim illumination. "A lot. We haven't heard from any of our teams since we lost the power." 

"We saw several bodies on our way here," Teyla said. "I'm afraid they were all dead." 

"Your lockdown is not working," John reported. "The Priors are blasting through the doors."

Carter pursed lips and shared a look with Mitchell. Jackson just nodded. 

"We figured they would," Vala said. "So, what do we do?" She frowned at the lack of answer. "We gotta do something!"

John stepped forward. "Don't you have a ship in orbit?"

Carter nodded. "Yes, but we’ve lost all communication and I detected some kind of interference around the base. They probably can't reach us either." 

"Can we not use the gate?" Teyla asked.

"That's what I'm trying to do." Carter sat back down in front of her laptop. "We don't have any power. This laptop is on its batteries and it's not connected to our system. We can't dial the gate with it." She turned back to them. "I'm trying to come up with a quick dialing program, but we're still going to need a naquadah generator." 

"We were making our plans on how to get our hands in one," Mitchell chipped in. "We could certainly use the help." 

Ronon stepped forward and placed his gun on his shoulder. "And then what?"

"We can go to the alpha site and bring in reinforcements," Carter answered. "We can also contact our ships and let them know of the SGC's status and have them contact the President. This mountain is a fortress. There is no way the Priors can get out. If we position our troops outside we'll be able to hold for several days even if they manage to bring in more soldiers through the gate." She paused briefly. "My guess is that this is just an advanced attack group to weaken us until their ships arrive. We need to be prepared for an attack from orbit." 

"I guess this would be a very good time for that weapon that kills Ori, isn't it?" Daniel looked at John. 

John absently scratched his jaw. "What about self-destruct?"

"Without any power, we can't activate it," Carter started. "I was thinking about overloading a naquadah generator, but we have no idea if we're going to be able to get our hands on one, let alone two." 

Rodney started snapping his fingers. "We don't need two. We can overload the one we use to dial the gate!"

Carter shook her head. "How?"

"We rig the gate with the naquadah generator and start a closed feedback between the two," Rodney explained, his hands moving from side to side. "We dial the gate and the power starts to build. When the gate activates, an overload will start. We get out of here as fast as we can as it's only a matter of seconds before everything explodes." 

A smile began forming in Colonel Carter's lips. "The naquadah from the gate should significantly increase the power of destruction of the explosion. We would just need to calculate precisely the timing of the overload so it's neither too slow nor too fast, but it can be done." She looked at her team. "Dialing the correct address and sustaining the wormhole for a long enough time should be the key. We wouldn't want to dial someplace too close, because less power would be used and therefore the overload would take longer. The Priors would have time to deactivate it. But if we use too much power or keep the gate active for a second too long, the overload would pass into the wormhole and into the other side, vaporizing both gates. It'll be tricky." 

Rodney's eyes widened. "We're geniuses!" He snapped his fingers and pointed at Carter. "I need your laptop!"

She raised an eyebrow. 

"I just had a thought and I'll need to do the calculations in order to confirm it," he said quickly.

She vacated her seat and Rodney took it, putting himself to work. She leaned over behind him to watch.

"Okay, we blow up the mountain, no Ori escape to take over the Earth," Mitchell summarized. "We'd still have to prepare for a strike from space." 

"Well," Vala started. "If we _do_ blow up the SGC, we won't even need to send a transmission back to Earth. They'll know for sure there is something very wrong happening." 

Jackson raised an eyebrow. "Huh, true."

"Yeah, they'll probably put themselves on alert and power on our defenses. It's protocol for losing contact with the mountain," Mitchell added.

"See?" Vala waved a hand. "What better way to alert the authorities?" 

"Okay. So, what about that naquadah generator?" John prompted.

"Yeah." Mitchell turned to him. "Two levels up, Carter is sure there is one in one of the labs. It's the closest one." 

"How far?"

"Three corridors."

John nodded. "Doable, I don't think we'll encounter much resistance. The Prior appeared to be marching outwards."

"Probably trying to get to the surface," Ronon said.

"Exactly." John turned to SG1. "Those blast doors are no problem for them, which means it's just a matter of time before they get there. We're under the clock. If we're gonna do this, we can't waste any time."

Mitchell turned to Carter. "Sam, how long do you need?"

"The dialing program is almost ready. With both of us doing the calculations and checking each other's formulas, it shouldn't take long."

"Twenty minutes," Rodney said from the workstation he was occupying.

"So, here's the plan," Mitchell started. "We all go except for McKay and Carter. I lead the way with Teal'c. Sheppard and Ronon take our six. We do this as fast as we can, go in, take the generator and come back. If we encounter resistance, Daniel and Vala bring the generator back while we provide cover." He looked each one of them. "Got it?"

"Got it," they said in unison.

*******  
**

Ronon followed Sheppard out of the control room and into the corridor. He would have preferred a smaller group to be more inconspicuous, but he agreed that they would need the reinforcements if they encountered problems. The Ori soldiers were just numbers and didn't have much skill but from what Ronon had been told they had passion. The Priors were a bigger problem with their ability to create force fields. Ronon wondered how long it would hold during an attack. 

Ronon liked the darkness and could move about without much problem, but he couldn't say the same about the others. The flashlights made the group easy to spot and were making him uncomfortable. There were too many people going in the op together and they could easily get lost in the dark. If they had all been from the same squadron working and training together for years, then they would be able to function smoothly in the dark, but he didn't know this other team or how they liked to operate. Sheppard was putting his trust in them, but it still made Ronon wary. 

They knew the base well and, had they been all military personnel, Ronon imagined the lamps wouldn't be necessary. The civilians changed that perspective considerably. If it was Rodney, Ronon would just tell him to suck it up. But again, they were too many unknown people, too many variables, too many ways this could go wrong. 

The feeling diminished a little when the Mitchell guy told the others to shut off their lamps. He was leading the way, so only his flashlight remained lit. Jackson and the girl turned the lamps off immediately and Sheppard hadn't been using one. 

They climbed two sets of ladders, going up two levels. That slowed down their speed, but they soon picked up the pace once they were back in the corridor. 

The silence stretched. For several minutes, the only sounds were very faint breathing and the rustle of clothing. Ronon kept his ears perked up, knowing that the enemy liked to walk around in troops that made a lot of noise and that flashed light on their way. 

The teams encountered many bodies along their path, from both marines and the enemy but mostly marines. Too many times Ronon caught a glimpse of white clothing that suggested scientific personnel. He gritted his teeth. It was one thing to kill soldiers, warriors defending their home. It was something else entirely to kill innocent unarmed civilians. 

Those Ori soldiers had no honor. They would wipe out anything on their path. Soldiers, misguided men serving false authorities, but either as men or as entities, Ronon could tell the Ori only cared about conquering. Sheppard had explained they had been related to the Ancestors in their past. They had nothing similar with each other now. The Ori were more similar to people than to Gods. Using the ones below to get where they wanted, and what they wanted was power.

They soon arrived at their destination and found what they had come for. Ronon waited by the door with Sheppard while the others went in to grab the generator. Seconds afterwards, Mitchell was coming out with Teal'c, followed by Jackson carrying the generator and Vala. Sheppard and Ronon followed behind. 

Ronon started to feel the tension easing out of the others the closer they were to the control room. Ronon remained on alert and would only be truly relaxed again once they were back in Atlantis. Things could still go wrong.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, bright light coming from around him temporarily blinded him. He blinked teary eyes, forcing them to get used to the light in order to see what was happening. The light died out again then blinked a few more times before settling and making the whole corridor clear.

"Oh-oh. The lights are back," Mitchell said.

"That can't be good," Sheppard added softly. 

Mitchell resumed the walking; now taking larger steps. "C'mon guys, double time."

They followed the next couple of corridors briskly, Ronon's apprehension increasing exponentially the longer they stayed in the light. Coming down the ladders was easier and faster with the illumination back and they took advantage of it. They got to the lower level and ran down the corridor, skidding to a halt when they heard the thump of heavy footsteps coming from ahead.

"Crap," Sheppard whispered.

Ronon aimed his gun ahead. "Is there any way around?"

"Yeah." Mitchell glanced back. "We need to circle all the way to the other side."

"Let's go."

They backed away to a side corridor and hurried along, now Ronon and Sheppard taking point. The footsteps started getting fainter, but soon more joined in. 

"They're surrounding us," Mitchell said from the back. "We need to hurry, we're about to be overrun."

Ronon sprinted, blaster at the ready while the others followed. The heavy marching echoed in the halls, louder and growing nearer. The corridor was long and Ronon brought a mental calculation of the way they were supposed to follow. If his map was correct, they were still about a minute away from the control room. He started running, glancing back to make sure Sheppard was still behind. He stopped by the big blast door on the control room and knocked three times. 

"We're out of time, how are the calculations going?" Mitchell asked as he hurried in and locked the door behind. 

Carter eyed him, brief surprise showing in her eyes before it settled to understanding. "How many?"

"A lot," Sheppard answered.

"It sounded like all of them," Jackson added. 

"Okay, okay," McKay said over the frantic typing. "I think I've got it." He looked at the screen, his finger traveling over the symbols running through it. Ronon saw the shadow of a smile as Rodney turned around to face them. "Okay, power requirements are not going to be an obstacle for our problem." He pointed a finger at Sheppard. "I've got the perfect address. One that will trigger the overload with _the_ perfect timing!" He flourished his hand as he backed away his chair to show his computer. "Sam completed the dialing program and I had to tweak a little bit to fit it, but it'll work, I'm certain." He keyed a few commands and the screen changed to show all the symbols from the gate displayed as in a dialing device. 

"Okay, just get going, Mckay," Sheppard urged.

McKay smirked. "You know why we need a ZedPM to dial to another galaxy? It's because it is the only thing that _won't_ overload with the power requirements to establish a wormhole to so far away. But in this case, the overload is what we're aiming for." 

Sheppard narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"If we dial Atlantis, we'll have 45 seconds of a stable wormhole before the naquadah generator blows up. It's enough time for us to get through and not enough for the Prior to stop the chain reaction." McKay's eyes were wide and a huge grin filled his face. "It's perfect!" 

Sheppard smiled briefly. "Okay, but what about them." He waved at SG1. "They'll be stuck in Pegasus."

Rodney shook his head. "If we dial anywhere in the Milky Way galaxy, the wormhole will need to stay open several minutes, maybe even complete the full circle before the overload reaches critical level. It's way too long, the Ori are almost on us, it won't work!" 

Sheppard nodded slowly. "Are you sure that dialing Atlantis will work?"

"I've made the calculation three times and Sam confirmed it." He looked at her.

She nodded. "He's right. It's the only viable answer. Once we get there, we can figure something out. But right now we don't have time." 

"Okay, we don't have any choice," Mitchell agreed. "But forty-five seconds is not enough to send a MALP. We can't go in blind."

"Yes," Carter nodded. "We've thought about that. There is a MALP in the gate room that we were going to send to P4X-669 when we were attacked. We can remove the camera and send it through, using the MALP's screen to check for structural integrity, but we won't have any atmospheric readings." 

"We won't need readings if we confirm integrity," Sheppard shook his head. "Your legend of Atlantis is the same as ours which means they probably sank the city too. If the city is intact then Atlantis is probably still in the bottom of the ocean and the shield is active."

"The shield would have held back the water and the atmosphere will still be inside," McKay completed. "Hopefully." He swallowed.

"Okay, nice plan, which buttons do we push?" Mitchell hurried as they started hearing distant poundings. 

Carter went over to the computer. "Right. We've got everything ready. We just need to hook this up to the generator and the gate." She picked up the laptop and motioned them to the blast door that led to the gate room.

Ronon could hear the army coming down the corridor outside and took the team's six. Carter. McKay, Jackson and Vala ran towards the gate while Mitchell, Teal'c, Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon covered the corridor. A muffled distant voice reached their ears, growing in intensity. 

Soon, the voice filtered through the rumble of the march, commanding them forward, promising enlightenment and fulfillment. Ronon narrowed his eyes along his blaster, kneeling behind a large crate strategically positioned near the gate room's blast door and felt Sheppard crouch near him. Teal'c stood behind them, covered by the corner while Mitchell pushed another crate in the narrow hallway for him and Teyla to use as cover. 

"Sam? How long?" Mitchell yelled.

"A couple of minutes!"

Ronon didn't turn around to watch the group working, but he knew they were frantic, hooking up wires and computers and what else. He focused on the corridor, his senses sharp, knowing it would be only seconds before the army reached them. He narrowed his eyes and felt the tension growing at the same rate as the loud footsteps. A second later, the corridor erupted to action, gunfire mixed with his blaster and the energy weapons used by the enemy soldiers. Ronon took advantage of the attacker's uncovered position and several of them fell before they realized they were under attack. 

Ronon kept on firing, knowing it was only a matter of time before the shield came up to protect the attackers. He kept his eyes fixed to the end of the corridor, not letting any troops turn the corner and give the Prior a chance to show up. Sheppard and the others were imitating, no doubt with the same thought in mind. The enemy soon picked up the tactic and became sharper, using the corner as a cover to shoot at them. 

Energy buzzed past his head and dissipated on the back wall. Ronon ducked and changed position, coming up from the side of the crate instead of above. Blue zapped near his hand when it collided against his cover and made him hiss at the tingling sensation. He grunted and returned fire, the red explosion hitting right in the middle of one's head. 

Another blast hit beside him and Ronon snapped his head around to look at where it hit. He saw Sheppard diving down before he eyed Ronon back, wide eyed from the sudden shock. Ronon smirked and Sheppard shook his head in annoyance. 

"Damn!" Mitchell yelled. 

Ronon fired a few more times and noticed the reason of Mitchell's frustration. His red blaster spread through the air and was replaced by blue energy. 

"The force field is up!" Mitchell ducked and leaned his back against the crate. "Sam!" 

"One more minute!"

Ronon continued firing and watched each blast scatter in the air. 

"It's no use!" Mitchell warned. "It won't bulge!"

Ronon growled in frustration and kept on firing as he backed away with the others. The soldiers marched forward, the presence behind them uttering dark words which Ronon didn't pay attention to. He fired one last round as Teal'c closed the blast door and shot the controls with his P90. Ronon looked around for his teammates, all of whom appeared to be present and unharmed. 

"Rodney?" Sheppard called as he stepped closer to the ramp. 

Rodney was crouched near the gate with an open laptop connected to it and the generator. "Yeah, yeah, we're all set." He looked up at Carter. "Sam?"

"Okay, the camera is ready, you can dial out!"

Ronon observed as Rodney pressed enter and put the spinning wheel of the gate to function. The loud rotation shook the ramp and smoke came out of its wires and connections until each symbol locked with a clank. No one said a word as they watched in fascination lock after lock, counting down the glyphs. Four, five, six... 

Loud banging on the gate room's blast door came. They bit their lips and their eyes moved around the gate and back to the door. Ronon knelt down behind the ramp and aimed at the entry point, feeling it shake violently as the seventh symbol started spinning and clanked into place. The entire room trembled with the last wheel to turn, all occupants inside ready to be overrun. The blue explosion illuminated the gate room and nearly blinded Ronon until it subsided to the faint hue of the event horizon. Some of them cheered and a collective breath was released. 

Carter ran past Ronon with camera in hand, kneeling down on the ramp to slide it through the open connection. Ronon heard the blurb of it passing through as the banging on the door diminished and stopped. 

"Okay, Sam, image is coming through!" Jackson yelled from next to the MALP. 

Carter ran back to the screen of the device but Ronon, busy overlooking the entrance, didn't know what she was doing.

"We've got telemetry. It seems the structure is intact."

Ronon noticed a hint of glee in her voice and heard undefined gasps coming from around. 

"Okay, let's go people!" Mitchell urged them as he started up the ramp. "We don't have long." 

They all scrambled to action, their footsteps on the ramp echoing in the room. They flinched and ducked when the blast door finally burst open in an explosion of light. Soldiers started firing and Ronon returned it, hearing the chorus of P90 and the continuous blurb of people going through the gate. He pushed up behind Sheppard and both dived through at the same time, a bright white light and a loud yell the last thing Ronon sensed before he was enveloped by the tingling of the gate.

*********


	8. Chapter 8

John crashed on the floor of the darkened gate room, crying out at the explosion of pain on his side. He curled around it and grasped the right side of his chest, feeling it sticky and wet. Gasping through the pain, he took deep breaths as he squeezed his eyes. He felt movement around him and heard voices that hovered between clear and distant. 

Someone was trying to peel his hands away from the wound and he forced himself to oblige. He bit his lip to suppress the groans that wanted to escape as it probed. 

"John?" Teyla's voice called.

He opened his eyes and saw the blur of her shape slowly settle. "Yeah," he said breathless.

"The wound is not deep, but it is large." Her tone was controlled, but years of knowing her showed him that it also had an edge of tenseness she wasn't able to suppress. "I will attempt to bandage it."

John nodded and released a breath he was holding. He slowly scanned his surroundings and smiled briefly at the sight of the Atlantis gate room. It appeared just as he remembered it from the first time he had come through. The lights were off everywhere except for the area immediately around the gate, no doubt thanks to his and Rodney's genes.

"Rodney," he called, his voice more strained that he would have liked. 

Rodney knelt down, worry seeping from his wide blue eyes. 

John closed his hands to fists to stop them from shaking. "C-control room. We n-need to emerge." 

He watched as Rodney nodded and scrambled to his feet. John hissed and bit his lip when his midsection flared from Teyla's attempts to remove his shirt.

"I am sorry, John. I need to separate your clothes from the wound."

He swallowed. "No problem, Teyla." 

He closed his eyes and forced a deep breath as he felt the fabric being ripped from his exposed flesh. Spasms rippled through his body as his whole side felt like it was being torn from his body. 

"God!" he gasped. He squeezed his eyes to prevent tears from spilling. "Teyla…"

"I am sorry, John." Her voice shook. "I am almost done."

John took a few deep breaths and nodded. The pain began to subside as Teyla finished removing his clothes from over it and he was able to open his eyes again. 

"I do not think it hit any major organs," she said as she pushed his t-shirt over his chest.

"It just burned the skin," Vala added. John hadn't realized she had been beside him. "It only brushed through the side."

"Lucky me," John said as he suppressed a groan. 

Teyla now had a small bag of antiseptic gauze that she had found inside her vest.

She looked into his eyes. "This may hurt a little."

John nodded and allowed her to started cleaning the edges of his wound. He widened his eyes then squeezed them close, nearly banging a fist on the gate room floor at the burning that shot from his left side. Turning his face down, he let his forehead rest on the cool floor. 

"Okay, John. Now I just need to bandage it."

John breathed deep and released it slowly, enjoying the moments of controllable pain. She passed the bandage under his body and started wrapping it over his wound. She applied some pressure on it which made him gasp and flinch, but he forced himself to stay as immobile as he could. 

He looked around the gate room. Shadows covered the corridors beyond it while its center was faintly illuminated. John realized the stairs were lit up all the way to the control room. The members of SG1 were going up, bewilderment in their darkened eyes. John smiled. He remembered how it had been. Rodney was nowhere to be seen, but by the way the consoles above were lighting up, John imagined where he should be. There was a tap on his back and John snapped his head around to look at Ronon. 

"Hey big guy, c-can you go over... to Rodney and ask about our status?" 

Ronon nodded and left, taking two steps at a time and almost knocking out Doctor Jackson that had been standing right in front of the glass window that showed the balcony, now darkened and underwater.

"They are curious about the city," Teyla said.

John looked at her. He knew she was trying to distract him, but he welcomed it. "Yeah, same way we were when we first got here." He closed his eyes and swallowed a grunt. "Remember?" He opened his eyes again.

Teyla smiled. "I remember, John. I remember you helped my people and rescued us from the Wraith." She smiled as she finished wrapping him up. "We will need to keep the wound clean and change the bandages from time to time." She searched inside her vest and pulled a pill which she gave it to him.

John nodded and knew he wouldn't be looking forward to those times, but knowing they were a necessity. He swallowed the Tylenol and closed his eyes, focusing on the comforting cold seeping from the floor. Footsteps made him force his eyes open.

"Hey," Ronon said as he knelt next to him.

"How… how we doing?"

Ronon tilted his head to the control room. "Rodney is working on deactivating the thing that keeps the city down. He says it'll only take a few minutes." 

"Help me," John crooked as he tried to sit. "I want to go over to the stairs." They would be a much better place to be instead of the middle of the gate room.

Teyla looked at him and he felt she was going to refuse letting him go all the way across the room, then her face softened as she changed her mind. She held a hand across his back and under his armpits and supported his weight as he stood. He groaned and bit his lip as his side burned, his vision graying as he got upright. His weight shifted to her side and for a moment he thought he was going to collapse back down. He slowly came back to his senses as the pain subsided. 

They walked together, Teyla assisting as John tried hard to focus on the floor. She let him down on the last step, allowing him to take a breath and recover from the walk. He looked up, longing to go up and be in the loop of everything. Teyla must have noticed his look.

"You shouldn't move too much."

He sighed. "C'mon, Teyla, it's not like I'm going to drop dead from climbing a few steps." He knew his voice sounded pleading, but he wasn't opposed to begging. He didn't want to be all alone down there, when everyone was above and knowing what was going on. 

She smiled briefly and lowered herself to wrap an arm around his back. She was careful not to touch his wound and supported most of his weight to prevent as much moving from his side as possible. His vision whitened out for a few moments, but he quickly recovered.

They climbed the stairs one step at a time and slowly made progress. He was sweating by the time they reached the top, but he held on to her. He watched as everyone was trying to stay away from the controls. Rodney was examining the data scrolling through an Ancient screen while Carter's eyes hovered above each console before settling on the data as well.

"Wow, this is fascinating," she said. "It looks like a subroutine." 

Rodney nodded. "Yeah, it's the subroutine that keeps Atlantis underwater. Took us some time to find it in our Atlantis, but now I already know where to look." Rodney's face wasn't visible from John's position, but he heard the smirk in his voice. "I'm about to deactivate it." He looked around at everyone. "Better brace yourselves, it's going to get very bumpy." He waved a hand around then lowered himself to the controls.

Teyla let John down on the lone step at the edge of the room and stood nearby while everyone else moved to stand away from the breakable consoles. 

If only had they known how bumpy the way up from underwater would have been when they had first arrived, they could have avoided a lot of bruises and crashing containers. He remembered the feeling of having his stomach drop suddenly, before he even realized what had been going on. 

This time, the feeling wasn't much different. There was a loud sound like a thunder and then the whole tower was rumbling with the release of the city. The consoles were trembling and the screens hanging from the ceiling were shaking. Crystals bumped over the controls and some crashed to the floor, scattering to a million pieces. 

There was a general commotion of people's voices, some kneeling down and opening their arms wide. John flinched and held his bandage, wincing at the pain the continuous trembling provoked. 

There was a roar and soon light was started to filter through the colorful windows of the room. 

"Well, that wasn't that bad," John said. 

Rodney got up from the floor and brushed his clothes. "Yes, well, the first time we didn't have the shield to hold back the water."

"Speaking of shield..." John waved outside. "We're... wasting power." He swallowed.

"Right." Rodney walked over to the console and deactivated the city's shield. "I guess we have some little power left. Not enough to dial back to Earth I imagine, but maybe a few minutes of shields if we need."

"But we can dial addresses in Pegasus, right?" John asked. 

Rodney turned to him. "Oh, yeah. But I'm worried about the power levels." He frowned and unfocused for a moment. "Remember? In our reality, the Elizabeth from the alternate timeline went back in time and was responsible for Janus creating the failsafe and extending the city's power. Since that didn't happen here, I'm guessing power is very limited. We don't have any backup generator to keep the city alive if we run out." 

John figured his team wouldn't stay too long, but SG1 probably would if they didn't manage to find a way back.

"Without a ZedPM, they'd probably be stuck here. Won't even be able to use the gate." Rodney waved a hand towards the other team. 

John nodded. 

"Well, you have ZPMs in your Atlantis," Jackson started. "Do you happen to remember where you got them?" 

Rodney puffed loudly. "Yeah, from the replicators."

John pursed lips and narrowed his eyes at Rodney. Rodney shot back a half apologetic, half annoyed _we're here already, we might as well tell them the whole thing'_ look.

"Replicators?" Mitchell asked, his tone low and a little angry. "You didn't mention anything about replicators."

"Yeah, well…" Rodney waved a nervous hand around.

"Yeah, we didn't," John glared at Rodney. "We dealt with them in our reality, but we don't know if they exist in here too."

"Uh, anyway," Rodney amended. "The Ancients created them as a weapon to deal with the Wraith. It wasn't successful because the Ancients ended up making the replicators too aggressive. They de-activated a key piece of programming and destroyed them all. Or they thought they did." Rodney sighed. "We found them and thought it was worth a try to use them, and then--" 

"The point is, they had ZPMs," John interrupted. "When they found out about us, they came and attacked Atlantis. We kicked their butts, then they came and kicked ours, we went back for some more butt-kicking and in the middle of all that, we managed to steal a couple of ZPMs." 

"Which, I might say, was extremely hard and unadvisable at your point in history." Rodney pointed a finger up. 

"What about the Daganians?" Teyla asked. At everyone's blank looks, she completed. "Do you remember when Doctor Weir from the alternate timeline brought us addresses of worlds that had ZPMs?" She stepped forward.

"Yeah, but you don't really expect us to go all the way back to Dagan and do all that brotherhood thing all over again just to have it taken away from our hands, do you?" Rodney said condescendingly then narrowed his eyes and started snapping his fingers. 

"What?" John urged Rodney who was still snapping fingers, the light bulb eyes wide open. 

"The planet we were on! It was a facility used to harvest power!"

John shook his head. "So, what use would it be for them to have power over on that planet instead of here? That gate can't dial the Milky Way."

"No, it can't." Rodney smirked. "But I can take the necessary crystals to modify it. We go over and activate the machine, figure out how to make it work, we power it on, go back to our own universe and use the stored power to rig the gate and make it dial the alpha site in the Milky Way." He snapped his fingers. "All problems solved in one go!"

"What if it doesn't work?" John asked.

"Where's that positive thinking you're so fond of?" Rodney shook his head. "Anyway, between Sam and I there isn't one problem this galaxy can throw at us that we can't solve." 

John looked at Carter who had an eyebrow up. 

John nodded at Rodney. "Okay. Get what you need."

*******  
**

Cam was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he had traveled to another galaxy. The trip through the gate hadn't felt any different, but still here he was, walking in the halls of the lost city of the Ancients. 

Everything was smooth, gray metal with cool engravings, lots of blue and glass, some darkened crystals, and lots of big colorful windows. He had gone to Ancient ruins before, but this was different from anything he had ever come across in his years traveling through the gate. This was Atlantis, the biggest Ancient creation ever, maybe even surpassing the invention of the Stargates. This was the Ancients in their full glory. 

The city had started coming to life as soon as McKay had walked up the steps but not when Cam had. McKay had lit up the right consoles and all the necessary controls. He knew exactly what he was doing. He could either activate a self-destruct or save them all from a grimly fate; it was all in his hands. Normally that would make Cam uneasy, but Sam trusted McKay for some reason and Cam trusted her. If McKay wanted to sabotage them, he could have done it under the mountain when they had been under attack. 

Cam turned around and looked at the faces of each member of Sheppard's team. There was no mistake in there. They looked very different now. When they had been back on Earth they had seemed a little out of their element. Tight and suppressed. Cam had thought it was because they were in a reality strange from the one they knew, but now he could see the difference. This Atlantis was still in a different reality. It was still different from the city they knew. It was dark, dirty, broken and powered down, far away from being in its full potential. But somehow they seemed more at home here than they had ever looked back on Earth, even when they had been outside Cheyenne Mountain. The way they looked at her walls, the way they glanced at each other, the way they smiled and the way they tried to hide the smiles, it was all a testament to it. Atlantis was their home. 

They would be a whole lot happier stuck in this Atlantis than back on Earth, of this Cam was certain. 

This galaxy had its own set of problems, its own logic, its own people and bad guys. Cam was the one out of his element now. Now he had to worry about life sucking aliens, advanced technology problems, insufficient power generation charts, a whole new level of gate operation, Pegasus version of replicators that seemed to be hyped up on Ancient toys, not to mention the danger of tripping on a strange console and activating something that could kill them all. 

At least he didn't have the gene necessary to operate most of that stuff. 

Cam kept up with their chat about ZPMs and evil robots and understood why it would be a very bad idea to go after these replicators for some help. He was still trying to understand why the Ancients didn't leave any spare batteries behind in the hope of having _someone_ find their city. They had been careful enough to sink it under the ocean and preserve it for ten thousand years, so why the hell didn't they do the courtesy of leaving a few ZPMs in plain sight as well? 

Sam backed up McKay's explanation on their new plan and that was good enough for Cam to pack it up, figuratively speaking since he didn't have any packs, and wait on the sidelines until they decided to go somewhere. Sheppard wasn't walking around much, but still kept everything in check and it seemed nothing got past his eyes and ears. He ordered McKay to pack whatever was needed and all the non-scientific personnel waited from a certain distance. Well, all non-scientific personnel except Vala. She seemed to be way too curious about things and kept forcing Daniel out of his geek mode to keep her in check. Cam smiled and was absolutely _not_ going to interfere. Soon enough, both of them vanished behind Teyla who was going to show where the Hologram Room was so they could make their inquiries to the Ancient lady.

Some while later, everyone was ordered to the level above. McKay hurried ahead while Cam and the rest of his team followed, curious to know why they were going up and above the gate room instead of down towards it. His mouth hang open when he finished the last step and saw the lights slowly come to life and show him a dozen spaceships all neatly parked, not only next to each other, but also on top of each other, going up several levels of the tower. He heard gasps and wows and whoas and it was hard to identify which were his own and which were from the rest of his team. 

Cam whistled. "This is cool."

McKay entered through the back of one of the ships then looked back and yelled at them to hurry up and stop drooling. Sheppard walked past them and shook his head. 

Cam forced his mouth shut and shook himself from the frozen position in the middle of the bay. He walked into the ship and saw its interior neat save for a few specks of dust. 

"Uh... Are you sure you can fly it?" McKay asked from the co-pilot seat. 

"Yes, Rodney," Sheppard said as he sat on the pilot chair. 

"Don't you want me to--"

"It was just a scratch, McKay. Besides, I've flown puddle jumpers in way worse conditions than I am right now," Sheppard said as he started his pre-flight. 

Cam would have liked to ease himself in one of those front seats (or better yet, the pilot seat), but they were all occupied by Sheppard and his team. Cam approached him and tapped his shoulder lightly from behind.

"Some ship you have here, Sheppard." 

Sheppard smiled. "Best thing to fly. It reads your mind." 

McKay huffed. "Yeah. It's literally in his blood." 

Sheppard smirked and called a display that occupied the whole front of the windshield. On it, flashes of status of various systems came in and out, obviously obeying Sheppard's mental commands and most of it in Ancient. 

"Energy levels, life support, inertial dampeners, thrusters, weapons, drones..." Sam tried to identify the readings. "A cloak? I didn't know it had one!"

"Pretty cool, huh?" Sheppard said. "Altitude check, navigational system, hull integrity... everything available at mental command and all apparently in good conditions. Looks like we picked the right jumper." Sheppard tapped a few last controls. "Okay, dial it up."

The puddle jumper, as Sheppard had called the ship, was a gate ready technology that had its own DHD. Cam remembered a version of the ship that had been found in the Milky Way, but he had never seen it in person. It really must be an amazing bird to fly. 

McKay dialed the gate and soon the jumper started descending. When it came down, the puddle of the event horizon cast a blue glow to the control room and, a few seconds afterwards, they were through. 

They came out in the middle of a clearing of a tropical rain forest. Sheppard took the ship up quickly to avoid the beginning of the tree line and followed north. The sky was white with clouds, a few of them darkening. Cam observed the reading display as it showed a view of the weather forecast and knew a storm was coming. In a matter of seconds they saw a small peak of white in the middle of all the green. Cam calculated the distance between the structure and the gate to be a little more than five clicks. Sheppard landed on the roof and opened the rear hatch. 

"I don't need to remind people to _not_ touch anything, do I?" McKay asked as he stood from his seat. 

"I think everyone knows that, Rodney," Sheppard retorted with a groan as he also got up.

The group exited the ship and proceeded to a door at the east corner, Sheppard at point and Ronon at six. They descended a group of stairs until they got to the ground level. Sheppard didn't slow down, but held his side from time to time, mostly as he climbed down the stairs. They entered a large lab with an obviously ancient architecture that had the same features, consoles and screens as Atlantis. 

"Okay, okay." McKay rubbed his hands and walked to the center of a few panels that formed a circle. "So far, so good." He extracted a small device from his vest pocket and began taking readings. 

"So?" Sheppard asked after a while. 

"I've got no energy readings whatsoever," McKay said distractedly while looking at the small screen. "It could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing."

Sheppard walked over closer to McKay. "Let's hope it's the first."

"Yeah." McKay bit his lips as he worked. "Okay. Last time, this console right here had all the experiment data. It collected information directly from the other consoles to display in this screen. I figure that if I turn off that connection, only for now, I'll be able to take a look at those without triggering the overload. If there is one."

Sam had also walked among the controls and was checking each of the darkened instruments. Daniel went to check the writings and Vala followed with a look Cam was almost sure meant trouble. Ronon and Teyla stopped against the wall and merely watched. Cam and Teal'c decided to join them. 

"How long is this going to take?" Sheppard asked.

"Uh, I don't know, a few hours." McKay didn't look away from his screen.

"A few hours?"

"Yes, a few hours!" McKay raised his head. "I have to go through all the relevant data to make sure there isn't an overload in progress." 

Sheppard sighed. "Okay." He walked over to a wall and sat down. 

Cam soon discovered that McKay hadn't been kidding when he'd said a few hours. He realized that as soon as the second hour tickled by and noticed, a bit too late, that McKay had said a _few_ hours and not a _couple_ of hours. Everyone seemed to have ran out of things to talk about and silence hovered by. Sheppard was busy trying not to look ready to collapse, Ronon was busy looking more bored that Cam has ever been in life and Teyla was busy either fussing over Sheppard or trying not to. Then there was Teal'c busy watching everything along with Cam, Sam on the consoles drooling with McKay, Daniel was trying to figure out the Ancient words that appeared on the screen but too often got interrupted by a very bored Vala.

Cam was stifling a yawn when a loud banging on metal snapped him out of it. His head shot up, attentive to the sounds that came from the end of the corridor. Teal'c was by the door in a second, looking out at the direction of the front of the building. 

"Someone is banging on the door," he reported.

Cam walked over to stand beside him. "I thought you said this planet was uninhabited." 

"It is."

Cam heard shuffling of clothes and noticed Sheppard was now right behind him. Cam looked back and saw Sheppard with P90 in hand. 

"We should check it out. Ronon, Teyla." Sheppard said before exiting the lab. 

Cam followed behind Sheppard's team minus McKay, weapon secured as well. He signaled Teal'c to follow and for the rest of SG1 to stay put. "We'll be right back."

The corridor ended in a small windowless hall with a heavy shut door at its end. Everyone had their weapons raised and aimed at it, the banging obviously getting more violent. Sheppard looked back, bit his lip then went back to the end of the corridor. He waved a hand over some crystals on the wall then a door closed blocking the passage and leaving them closed off. 

Sheppard clicked his radio. "McKay, come in." He waited a few moments for McKay's response. "I think we have company and by the noise they're making they may not be friendly." Sheppard was opening his mouth to continue, but sighed and shook his head instead. "Yes, I think that much is obvious, Rodney!" He exhaled loudly. "No, just shut all the doors. Can you do that from there?" He nodded. "Perfect, do it. Do not deactivate the force fields unless you hear it from us." Sheppard closed his eyes. "No, Rodney, our code words do not change in different universes." Sheppard clicked and closed the connection. 

Cam nodded at Sheppard and raised his weapon at the door, the other men doing the same. Sheppard waved a hand over the crystal tray on the wall, making it open to expose them. 

Cam felt the tension grow exponentially when to door opened. Ronon and Teal'c were twitching, hard muscles coiled and ready for action while the other people's fingers hesitated on the trigger. Cam gave one small step to the side to get a better view.

About twenty strong men stood outside, bodies covered only by a small leather skirt, angry faces painted red, black and yellow and hands holding long bows, pointy spears and tiny darts, all aiming at them. Cam glared at the closest one until he felt a pinch on his neck and crumbled down on the floor unconscious.

*********


	9. Chapter 9

There was some jostling around him. John wasn't awake enough to place it where or why, but he wished they'd just stop and let him sleep. He moaned his displeasure and was rewarded with even more jostling that flared up his side and made him curl around himself. The pain broke through the layers of sleep, leaving him gasping for air as he was lowered to the ground. 

He felt some movement around him, angry voices snarling and yelling, one of which was very familiar. Whoever they were, they distanced themselves and left the one growling. Ronon? John heard soft footsteps on dirt and soon felt small hands on him. He forced his eyelids open until a blurry shape coalesced into Teyla. He groaned in pain and breathed through the burning sensation until it subsided a notch. 

"John."

"I'm fine," he murmured.

Teyla's face told him that she saw right through his words and didn't buy them. He forced himself to sit, biting his lips all the way up, choking on his grunts while Teyla attempted to help. He looked around reminding himself of their situation. 

He was in a cage made of bones of various creatures, some really large and others that he recognized as human, some femurs and hip bones. There was also one group of bones outside the prison that made John shudder. It was neatly positioned in a shrine, skulls decorated with stone necklaces and ink similar to the ones the tribal men used. They were wraith skulls. 

"Worshipers," Ronon rumbled as he stared at the monument. 

John leaned his head back against the edge of the cage, not thinking about what it was made of, and closed his eyes.

"Okay, I don't want to sound obvious, but this is not good." Mitchell's voice came from somewhere on John's left. 

John would have replied to that, but he was busy trying not to rip his head off from the fierce headache the poisoned dart had produced. 

"So, any plans on how to escape this cage?" Mitchell continued. 

Ronon growled in response, Teyla rose to her feet and, from the sound of her footsteps started to walk around. 

"I do not know, Cameron Mitchell," Teal'c responded. 

"These bones are strong," Teyla observed. "But we may be able to break one with the right effort and leverage." 

"Enough for you to pass and go get our guns." Mitchell nodded.

John looked around and didn't see their weapons anywhere. He rose to his feet, clenching his left side. 

"Where are our guns?" he asked.

"They were left by the cliff." Teal'c pointed north and John saw the chasm that split the forest in two, passing several meters away from their prison. "The tribesmen left through the opening in the forest and into a path that leads far away, but we may not have long." 

"All right." John circled around the circular enclosure. "This spot seems the weakest." John stopped by an assembly of smaller bones pitched together by what seemed like leather. It wasn't big, only Teyla would be able to pass through. 

Ronon stepped closer and began kicking the thinner of the bones, about half the size of a human femur. 

The cage barely shook. John observed its design. The force of the blow was spread through intertwined connections until it reached the ground. After a few hits without success, Ronon was frustrated enough to make John almost pity the poor bone. 

Maybe it wasn’t going to be that easy.

John realized that kicks didn’t usually break any bones, but without the blood and muscle to increase its resistance it shouldn’t have been that hard. He touched a long thick alien sternum that was in reach and tried to snap with his hands to test its strength. It bent far without fracturing.

"Wait, Ronon. I don’t think it’ll work this way."

Ronon stopped and looked at John, his face creasing in annoyance. 

John showed what he had found out, bending the bone far to one side and the other. Some eyebrows rose.

John looked at Mitchell. "You know that experiment that kids do in school to dunk a chicken bone in vinegar?"

Mitchell stepped closer and touched the sternum. "Great. So, they’re smart."

"I do not understand." Teyla looked puzzled.

"If you dive a bone in an acid substance, it will increase its elasticity. It makes it hard to break," John explained. 

Ronon growled. "So, what do we do?"

"Bones usually break when there are conflicting forces within it. Part of it telling it to go one way when another sudden force comes in and snaps it the other way, right?" John continued. "Well, what we have to do is a group effort. One twists the bone as far as it can go and someone else comes in and tries to break it with a well-placed punch." 

"Fine." 

Ronon grabbed both ends from the bone he had been trying to break and started twisting it. His muscles trembled with the effort of keeping the pressure for long enough for Teal’c to come in and hit it with the palm of his hand. It took a few hits and Ronon had to help by curving it in addition to twisting it. After a few attempts, a crack was heard and Ronon was holding both ends split in the middle. 

They stepped back for Teyla to pass through. John glanced at her and saw her standing still, her eyes unfocused towards the sky. She snapped her head down and looked at John, wide-eyed. 

"Wraith," she said in a dark tone.

All heads turned towards her. 

"Crap. How many?" John asked.

She unfocused her eyes once more. "Maybe a cruiser." 

"Okay, we need to hurry. You get through and get our weapons while we try to break more bones to get out of this cage," John ordered.

Teyla got moving and squeezed through the small opening, running towards the cliff afterwards. Ronon and Teal’c started working on the pieces around the breach, breaking and untangling the sections from the rest of the cage. By the time Teyla got back with their guns, Teal’c was half-way through the gap and Darts cold be heard approaching their position. 

John heard the rumble of thunder. The thumps increased in rhythm, the slow drumming coming faster and faster the louder the darts got. A howl of yelling came next and a tribal chant started. 

Teyla put the weapons and vests on the ground and everyone geared up as quickly as they could. The fire on John’s side reminded him of his injury when he lowered himself to pick up his items. He clipped his holster and left his vest unzipped, carrying the P90 with his hand. A dark dot soon turned to a group of dots and then to a cloud. 

"C’mon, we don’t have much time!" he hurried as he walked towards Ronon who was waiting by a gap in the trees. "Know the way, big guy?"

"Yep. That drug wasn’t that potent." He grinned as he looked down at John.

John rolled his eyes and followed right behind Ronon with Teal’c taking their six. A burst of fire broke through the buzz of darts. John glanced back for long enough to see Teal’c firing towards the rear and a drone falling. At least five more took its place and started following the narrow trail. John halted his run and tapped his vest, grabbing a grenade from one of the pockets. 

"Teal’c!" John shouted to be heard above the noise. When Teal’c turned around John threw the grenade which fell right on his extended hands. Teal’c gave one single nod in return. "Hurry!" John yelled at Ronon who had stopped and was firing at the flying darts. 

They all followed the trail in large footsteps, John’s hand a constant presence on the side of his chest. A loud boom rocked the trees and John knew Teal’c had thrown in the grenade. He glanced behind and saw the Jaffa racing to catch up with them, no drones within sight. 

"How far?" John asked Ronon in between puffs of labored breath. 

"About twenty minutes."

John didn’t know if he could stand twenty minutes of running while his chest flared with each intake of air but he accelerated his pace, teeth carving his lips.

*******  
**

"They've been gone for too long," Vala helpfully observed for the umpteenth time. 

Rodney puffed in indignation. "That's just typical!" He turned around and resumed his pacing around the room. "Why can't anything work out smoothly?" He looked at Sam. "Have you tried the radio again?"

"Yes, McKay. They are still not responding. We have to finish this first. Then, if they're not back in a few hours, we'll go out to find them." 

Rodney exhaled. "A few hours! They could be dead in a few hours." 

He went back to the data he had been investigating. At least the work distracted him from their imminent doom. So far, everything seemed to be in perfect order, but then everything had looked fine the first time around, too. The Ancients weren't the most effective bunch when it came to keeping records, especially about failing experiments, which didn't exactly help much. 

Rodney had been right about his theory. He didn't know how he could have missed it before. The Ancients _had_ been trying to find a way to harvest more power. As if Doranda hadn't been a big enough lesson for them. However, they seemed to have learned a few things and this time it seemed like it worked fairly well. It _did_ overload but it didn't kill the team or destroy half the planet, solar system or anything. Not that Rodney could detect anyway. The more he looked into it, the more it seemed that the energy burst had been an exception rather than the rule. Maybe the Ancients had deactivated it in the middle of a test and never got to finish the process with the war going on and everything. 

Whatever the problem had been, this device didn't have any trace of it. But then, how should there be? The incident had happened in another universe. Which brought Rodney to yet another issue. How to find out their universe of origin? 

"McKay?"

Maybe if he… nonono it wouldn't work. Or… he snapped his fingers several times in succession. 

"I'm brilliant!"

"McKay!"

The yell snapped Rodney up.

"What! No need to shout!" he complained as he turned around to face Sam. 

She shook her head. "I've calling you for minutes." 

"Sorry, kinda busy here. Can't you see?"

"I think I found a way to transfer the power safely to the gate." She smiled. "All we got to do is reroute the main energy conduits using the dish at the roof. It should take power from the lab all the way to the top. Then, we use the main cables in addition to the auxiliary lines and connect all of them to the metal around the gate. We'd only have to worry about taking the gate up there." She stepped back and waved a hand towards the energy section of the console. "The main problem was to work out the type of energy that was produced. But with Daniel's help I was able to identify-- Are you listening to me?" she snapped when Rodney turned back to what he had been doing.

"I stopped when you said about the type of energy. I figured that out in my own universe." Wasn't that obvious? "Rerouting through the dish should work. Get to it while I run a diagnostics on the sensors." 

"Why?" she asked puzzled.

He twirled around. "Because my genius brain came up with a way to identify our universe of origin." He grinned. 

"How?"

"Well, you must know that traveling between universes generates a very specific type of energy, right?" She nodded. "Now, for a while now I've been theorizing about how to identify different universes based on the signature log. Several months ago a duplicate of one of our ships appeared in orbit around Atlantis simply out of nowhere. We went in to investigate and found out it came from another universe and had a new kind of drive designed to jump through universes and backtrack its steps in order to get back, but it didn't work. We ended up stuck in it while it jumped through reality after reality until I reversed the process and got us back home. Since then I've been going through the data I collected and putting all of that here with what the Ancients have been working on…" he beamed. "I believe that these sensors aren't ordinary ones. I think it records different energy signatures. Now, normal sensors don't pick up residual signatures left from interdimentional travels, but these were specifically designed to do so." 

"If they are still working then they may know where you came from and then you can tell it how to trace a kind of a course to your universe the way you did it on that ship," she completed. "That's brilliant."

Rodney smiled. "That's what I said."

"Uh, Sam?" Daniel called from across the room. "What's that flashing?" He pointed at a light blinking a bright red on the console.

She walked over to it. "Mmm, I don't know. It's a sensor alert and it's not connected to the device. It picked up something in orbit."

"Crap," Rodney whispered. 

Automatic Ancient alert picking up signals in orbit were never a good thing. Rodney hurried through the doors of the lab then up the stairs.

"McKay!" He heard Sam's voice from behind him. "Care to explain?"

He glanced back at her. "Going to the jumper to find out what's up there." He raced up to the roof and exited through the door. "If what I'm thinking is up there is up there, then we're in trouble."

He entered the jumper, Sam, Vala and Daniel right behind. He sat at the pilot's chair and powered on the sensors.

"Nononono! This can't be! How can they know we're here, it's impossible!"

"It's a ship in orbit," Sam detected from the Ancient reading.

"Yes, it is. A Wraith cruiser." 

Daniel pointed at several smaller dots coming out from it. "What are those?" 

"They're darts!" He fumbled with his radio. "Colonel Sheppard, do you copy?" No answer. "John, are you hearing me?" Still nothing. "Oh, this is so not good!" 

Rodney decided to cloak the ship. He pressed a few commands and broadened the range of communications.

"What are you doing?" Vala asked.

Sam smiled. "We're cloaked!" 

Rodney got up. "I increased the range of communications but I'll need someone to stay here and continue trying to contact our team." 

"I'll do it," Daniel volunteered. 

"The wraith can't find the ship and our channels are secure." He stepped closer to the console. "Just press here to speak. I'll be listening through my earpiece. I turned on the sensors manually, so it'll stay on regardless if you have the gene. These are their ships." Rodney indicated the dots at the edge of the screen moving slowly into their position. "And these are us," he showed the group of life forms at the center. "Now, the communications should work before you're able to see anyone through the sensors, so if can't reach anyone and read life forms closing in then--"

"Then they're Wraith," Daniel completed. 

"Exactly. Keep me informed of our status." 

Daniel nodded. "Go it."

Rodney turned to Sam. "C'mon, we got work to do. And we're under the clock."

*******  
**

John's breath came in ragged puffs. The headache from the drug didn't help him the least. In addition to that, the bandage covering the burning laceration on his chest was beginning to be soaked in blood and each bounce from his steps made it painfully graze over the wound. He held it with a fist, but the pain slowed him down considerably. 

A flash and a blast made his heart skip several beats, the energy burst hitting a tree just inches away from his body. He glanced back and saw at least five drones gaining on them, big stunners firing in pursuit. Mitchell lowered himself to evade the discharge and in his momentum almost lost his footing and fell. John accelerated his pace and gave Ronon room to fire back on their pursuers, red against blue. He heard thumps and a heavy fall, the diminishing blasts a hint that the big guy had hit a few opponents. John made sure everyone was still following and cursed when he saw even more Wraith approaching. 

Forcing lungs to work through the throbbing heat of his injury was agony. Each inhale flared up raw nerve endings and the recoil of his gun was beginning to get unbearable. He knew his clip was getting to an end so he started to fire only when he had a clear chance to hit something. 

John skidded sideways to evade a volley of arrows raining on them from the clearing up ahead, then halted altogether when he almost bumped into Ronon who had lost his balance and was knelt down by a tree. There was a bolt sticking out of his leg just a few inches above his heel. John grimaced as Ronon broke it around the entry and exit points, extracting the mid portion with a small grunt. 

A long burst of P90 fire followed by silence and a significant lack of stunner blasts told John that there were no more wraiths behind them, but now they had to worry about the spears and arrows. They all took cover by a few larger trees, peeking from behind to pinpoint the tribesmen exact locations. 

John glanced at Teyla then indicated a few positions up ahead. Ronon added a couple more around the clearing while Mitchell designated defensible positions on their side. They all nodded in agreement and proceeded to their respective spots while the attackers were reloading. 

Some of the primitive men were out in the open forming two lines and fell down quickly. Others were hidden by the vegetation, coming out every once in a while to fire their volleys, always in perfect synchrony. The bows and arrows were no match for automatic machine guns and it didn't take long for the way to be clear of hostiles. 

John signaled everyone to make haste to get to the other side. Darts approached them quickly, beaming rays sweeping through the grass. John fell on his back to evade one coming right across his path and it took a couple of seconds too long for his sight to register the drones that were left behind by the ray. The closest one threw itself down on top of John, feeding palm extended closing in on his chest. John held it in front of him, trying to squirm away from underneath and failing. 

The drone lunged with the other hand, long fingers scratching his face, neck and chest, extracting a shout of pain when it cut through his bandage. Strength faded from his arms that shook under the strain of keeping the feeding arm away. The drone dug his nails down on John's injury, pain taking over his senses and a howl of agony cutting through the air. John's arms gave out and his chest was slammed by the feeding hand, confusion mixed with relief when no excruciating pain came and instead, the wraith huge weight crashed on top of him. John opened his eyes and saw the handle of a knife poking out of the wraith's back, Ronon huge frame blocking out the sky. 

John would have blurted out a thank you, but his lungs were busy trying to catch a breath. Ronon removed the drone away and a huge intake of air flowed into John's chest. He groaned in pain, rolling to his side and curling around the fiery torment covering his side. 

Ronon started moving to help John up, but John extended a hand to stop him.

"Just… give me a moment." 

Shaking and taking in ragged breaths, John squeezed his eyes and took several seconds to recompose himself. He propelled himself upwards and accepted Ronon's hand to get up. 

He nodded thanks. "Let's go." 

They resumed their trek through the jungle to get to the lab, John now assisted by Ronon. Darts were still buzzing around the place, now shooting at them from the sky. Trees were hit around them and almost brought both of them down. They had to keep going. John didn't know how far they were from the lab, but however far it was, it was too damn far. If Ronon let go, John would go straight to the ground in a heap of exhausted bones. He did his best to keep his legs working, so far succeeding but he wouldn't be much good if they encountered more ground forces. 

"---shfh--- thi---Dani------kson------copy?"

John reached for his earpiece, relieved for the sign that they were finally getting closer. "This is Sheppard, can you hear me?"

"---Yes---hear you. Where---- you?" Daniel Jackson's voice came over the static.

"We are making our way back to the lab, but we're under attack," John responded in between puffs of breath, lowering his head to escape flying splinters. 

"Thank God!" Came Rodney's voice. "Where the hell are you?" he asked annoyed. "There are wraith coming!"

John almost fell and was dragged by Ronon that kept on going. "Yes, we noticed." They dived for cover from another blast. 

"Are you okay?" Rodney asked in a worried voice.

John took a few moments to breathe. "Yes, peachy. We'll be there in a few moments. What's your status?"

"We have a plan to get everyone back. It should be ready in several minutes now and we're going to need you to fly the gate to the roof so I can make the adjustments to send them back to the Milky Way."

John found hard to focus on Rodney's words but nodded in understanding when they finally made it through to his brain. "Right." Fly the jumper and get the gate. Easy. "You _do_ know that there are wraith darts zooming around everywhere, right?" The energy blasts exploding all around the background of their conversation should be a hint. 

"Think you can handle them?"

"In normal circumstances yes, but with a metal ring that weights a ton under my jumper? That is going to be hinky." John puffed and held in a grunt of pain.

"Well, we don't have any choice, do we?"

"We'll be right there." John closed the channel. 

The darts ran around for another pass and they took the opportunity to quicken their pace. John could barely keep up with Ronon's large strides and was helped by Teyla on his other side. With both assisting, they made it to the entrance of the lab just as the Darts were approaching again. 

Vala was already waiting with the door open for them to get through and locked it behind them by changing the crystal order in such an ease that made it almost look like she had done that hundreds of times before. 

Ronon placed John down against a corner and took in his appearance. 

"Think you can fly?" he asked. 

John just nodded while he caught his breath. A flush of lightheadedness made John shake his head and hold the wall, even though he was already sitting. Dirt rained down on them when the darts started attacking the building. Teyla started changing his dressing and John tried not to tear up when she attempted to peel the bandage from his wound. She gave up and wrapped a clean one on top.

"I'm… I'm going to need shotgun to ride with me in the jumper." Normally John wouldn't need any help, but in his condition, under attack and hoisting a gate, he probably should take someone up with him. 

"I'll go," Mitchell volunteered as he stepped closer.

John took the hand he was offered and groaned his way up, walking slowly and with help. He made it to the roof, not thinking about anything other than each step, concentrating on walking and not on the pain it caused. 

Daniel Jackson was waiting by the door of the jumper, half cloaked by it. He stayed outside while John went for the pilot seat and crashed down on it. 

"Good luck." He heard Daniel Jackson's voice before the rear hatch shut. 

The wraith ships were turning around again but couldn't see the cloaked jumper. They went in for another series of hits to the compound. 

"The darts can't see us for now, but they will once we hoist the gate," John explained to Mitchell. "We can't fire while we're cloaked so when I get the gate up in the air, I'll decloak and fire drones at them."

"Anything I can do?"

"Navigation is on your right and the sensors on your left. Press that to bring up the Heads Up Display. Just keep an eye out. Most controls are locked from you because you don't have the gene."

"Yeah, that's too bad."

John chuckled. "Yeah."

They arrived at the gate without incident but John had to let out a curse when he saw it.

"Dammit!"

"It's an open wormhole," Mitchell observed.

"Yeah." John maneuvered the ship to stay on top of the gate. "They do that to prevent escape, leave it open for a full cycle then dial out again."

He wiped his sweaty brow with a shaky hand and brought up the HUD to adjust his position with the gate. When it showed they were aligned, John fired up the tow cables that hooked up to the gate with claws that gripped on the metal. A clank announced he was successful. 

John slowly raised the ship and didn't feel any quiver when the gate was separated from the ground. He adjusted the weight of the ship on the inertial dampeners to make up for the extra cargo and started his way back to the lab. It didn't take long for the jumper to be noticed by the darts that broke the attack to the lab to head for them. John uncloaked and fired four drones at once, each one hitting a different dart before they could open fire. 

Several more darts that had been turning around for a new wave of attacks also changed course when they spotted John. John fired three more drones then dropped several feet in the air to evade several hits before firing another three. He bent right then left, feeling the strain of the cable holding the gate, losing altitude to evade rather than increasing it and risk losing the towline. The bottom portion of the gate scraped the tree line forcing John to decrease speed and drop another foot when the darts turned around for another hit. 

John quickly gained altitude while they passed overhead and fired the rest of the drones this jumper had one by one in sequence, making them fly after the darts to give the jumper time to reach the roof. The darts danced in the sky, one of them being destroyed when it was caught up. John slowed down the speed of the drones to give them a chase, driving the darts away before giving up control and blasting the last three drones out of the sky. 

The HUD showed another wave of darts coming down. John aligned the jumper with the roof, calculating the space the gate needed. Teal'c, Ronon, Teyla, Daniel and Vala made a circle on the top of the building signaling John down. He started to slowly lower the ship to let the Gate down horizontally and a sudden quiver made him tighten his hands on the controls with a curse. He looked at the HUD and saw several enemy ships approaching and firing at them. 

"Take cover!" Mitchell yelled through the comm.

John didn't have any more drones so he concentrated in touching down. He saw a red blast of energy cut through the sky and knew that Ronon was firing at the flying darts. 

A loud bang told John the gate was finally on the roof. He released the cables and maneuvered around to land next to it in between a few shakes and flying sparks then opened the rear door to exit.

The sight made his breath catch. Several wraith drones were fighting with the team on the roof, P90 fire above the energy blasts of stunners. Ronon signaled for both of them to make a run for it while he laid some cover fire. John nodded and went for it, Mitchell right next to him. He was almost on the top of the stairs when a familiar buzz took over his senses and a welcoming blackness lured him in.

*********


	10. Chapter 10

"All right!" Rodney cheered. "I have almost finished reconfiguring the device. Are you done with the power, Sam?"

"Almost," she shouted from across the room. "And we still need to connect the extra power to the gate and reconfigure the DHD."

Footsteps announced the arrival of the rest of the team and Rodney turned around to give Sheppard an earful for disappearing like that. That's when he saw his friend being carried into the room by Ronon.

"What happened?" Rodney screeched. 

A loud rumble was heard and shook the walls of the lab. 

"Stunner blast," Ronon reported as he lowered Sheppard to the ground.

Dirt rained on top of them. 

"There are dozens of those things outside," Mitchell reported. 

Rodney opened his mouth to say something, but Vala cut through him. 

"Don't worry, I reactivated the force fields just like you told me to." 

"And the jumper is cloaked so they can't get through," Mitchell completed. 

"Great!" Rodney puffed. "How the hell am I supposed to connect the power to the gate?" 

Ronon stood and left Teyla taking care of Sheppard. "How long do you need?"

"Several minutes!" He threw his hands in the air. "I also need to reconfigure the jumper's DHD and hope it wasn't blasted beyond repair by those darts!" 

"And there's something else," Mitchell chipped in. "The wraith activated the gate. We'll have to wait till the end of the cycle to dial out."

Rodney puffed in indignation. Of all the times for the wraith to show up. "Why are they here in the first place?"

Teyla turned her attention from John. "Worshippers. They must have called their masters."

"We can hold them off for you to work." Ronon already had his blaster in his hand. 

"No, we can't! We're almost out of ammo!" Mitchell protested. 

Rodney snapped his fingers in rapid succession. "I know!" He turned to Mitchell. "You said the jumper is cloaked." Mitchell nodded. "That means it's still working. I can modify it into a shield to protect us while I work." 

Ronon smiled. "That's more like it." 

"I'll still need a few minutes of cover fire, though." He turned to Sam. "Got any clips?"

She reached for her vest and extracted some ammo. "Three clips for the P90 and three for the nine mil." She handled them out for Mitchell.

"I've got some too." Rodney took two clips for the P90 and two for the sidearm. 

Mitchell spread the ammo out on the console. "How much have you got left, Jackson?" 

He checked his gun. "I've got half of this plus a whole other one." 

"Me too." Vala raised her hand.

"And we have John's ammunition as well," Teyla said as she took his weapon.

"All right." Mitchell divided the clips. "If you run out, give me a shout." He reloaded his weapon and turned around to exit. "Let's go boys and girls! Time to kill some space vampires." 

Rodney turned around to Sam. "Finish this while I finish outside."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Rodney gulped. "Not really."

"Maybe I should go," she offered.

Rodney sighed. "No, you don't know how the jumper works. You'd take too long." 

She nodded. "Good luck."

He pointed at Sheppard. "Keep an eye on him," he said before racing after the team. 

They were waiting for him next to the active force field leading into the roof, weapons at the ready. Wraith were sneering on the other side taking positions with stunners raised. Rodney took one deep breath and prepared to lower the field. 

"Ready?" he asked.

They nodded.

"Let's do this," Mitchell said. He narrowed his eyes on his sight. "Lower it."

Rodney did as he was told and took cover by the corner. A roar of P90 fire kept the wraith at bay while Ronon worked in clearing a path to where Rodney assumed the jumper was parked. They gained some ground and Mitchell tossed the jumper's remote into Rodney's hand. Rodney uncloaked the ship, took a deep breath and raced inside before he decided to change his mind. He yelled as energy blasted around him, a buzz zooming so near his skin, he could feel it tingle. 

He breathed hard for a few moments, savoring the taste of being still alive then opened a crystal tray and put himself to work. His shaking hands soon found the right way and it took only a couple of minutes for the patch to be ready. He moved to the pilot's seat, increased the shield's diameter and looked at the HUD to see if it was safe to turn it on. 

He tapped his earpiece. "I'm ready to activate the shield but you need to step a little closer!"

When the whole team was within its protective radius, Rodney activated the field and breathed in relief when he saw it working. 

"All right," he said through the comm. "I'll manoeuver the jumper to get closer to the lab entry and the portion I need to work." 

"Is there anything we can do to help?" came Mitchell's inquiry.

"Just be ready for when the shield fails." Rodney said in his usual positive manner. 

He knelt by the DHD and opened its tray, finding his way around to alter its configuration. He reached inside the pack he had and took Atlantis DHD crystals, analyzing each then replacing the jumper's one by one. It was a delicate work but it was pretty straight forward.

"McKay." He heard Sam's voice through the channel. "I'm finished down here. Teyla is here with Sheppard so I'll move up there to give you a hand." 

"Okay, start connecting the gate. I'm halfway through with the DHD." 

After Rodney was done, he used the jumper's computer to calculate how much time the incoming wormhole had left before it deactivated automatically. 

"Crap!" He tapped his earpiece. "Sam, we have five minutes!" he shouted. 

"Copy, I'm almost done."

Rodney exited the jumper and hurried downstairs. He gave the readings one last look and got ready to activate the device.

"Sam!" he called through the open channel. 

"All right, I'm on my way down."

Rodney sighed in relief. Maybe they _were_ going to make it out alive. 

"How long do we have?" Mitchell asked as he entered the room.

"Less than five minutes." Rodney looked at his team. "We have to go now! As soon as I turn this thing on, power will start to build." He turned at SG1. "It'll take four minutes to reach the point where you'll have enough power to make a connection to another galaxy."

"I know what to do!" Sam hurried. "Go!"

Rodney nodded and hurried around consoles. He touched his hand on the activate button and hoped it wouldn't blow up on his face, smiling when it worked. "Get back!" he shouted at SG1 who stepped back into the corridor. Rodney's team surrounded Sheppard's sleeping form and held a collective breath. "Good luck," he told SG1 before a burst of bright white light enveloped them.

*******  
**

Sam released a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding when McKay and his team vanished. She hurried into the lab, checking readings and logs to make sure they had really been transported to their universe.

"So?" Cam prompted.

"They made it!" She smiled. "Power is building up in the buffer. We have four minutes!" 

"All right! Let's go to the roof!"

They all followed Cam up the stairs where the wraith ships still shot against the shield. She entered the Ancient gateship and checked the timing. It'd be close. 

She counted every second and each blast that hit the force field outside. She rehearsed the symbols she would need to dial in order to get to the alpha site then checked the power levels. It was still building up. She checked the shield integrity and cursed internally when she saw the number. 

"We'll not make it," Cam said. "The shields are almost failing." 

"It'll be close," she calculated.

The numbers ticked by the screen. Thirty seconds.

Then twenty seconds.

Sparks flew from the open tray McKay had probably used to make his workaround. 

Fifteen seconds. 

They took more fire and the jumper shook. 

"Shield's gone!" Daniel shouted.

Sam's hand hovered over the first glyph.

Ten.

"Get ready!" She shouted. 

Her team scrambled behind the jumper for cover while she prayed they would be okay.

"Be ready to send in the IDC the second I finish dialing!"

"Copy, Sam!"

Each second that tickled by was an intake of air.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

She pressed the whole sequence of glyphs as fast as her hands would allow. 

_C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon…_  
  
"We have a connection!" She cheered in relief.

"IDC is sent! Hurry up, Sam!"

She ran out and dove for cover under the heavy fire. Sparks flew from the back of the ship and some blasts hit the floor near where she stood. Mitchell was waiting by the gate and jumped through when he saw her coming. She plunged into the pool on the roof and only breathed again when she was on the other side, crashing down on the cool metal floor of the Alpha Site.

*******  
**

" _Do prdele_." Radek threw his hands up in frustration.

Lorne stepped closer. "What's wrong, doc?" 

Radek walked to another console. " _To je na hovno tohle to._ " 

"You know, doc, I don't speak Czech." 

Radek sighed loudly. "This," he waved a hand around. "Is not working! I have no idea what Rodney did to the device! It's completely shot and-- _kdo to vymyslel._ " 

Lorne opened both hands. "All right. Calm down. Just tell me, do you know where it sent them to or not?" 

Raked sighed. "All I know it that it sent them somewhere else in space. Maybe to another universe, maybe both."

"All right. Can you get them back?"

"Not yet."

Radek decided to check the energy signature again. Everything indicated that there had been an overload. Rodney hadn't been able to stop it, otherwise he's be here now instead of gone. 

Now, Radek would love to hear what his friend had to say about that. 

Definitely another universe. Almost definitely another planet. And most probably far, far away. 

" _Do prdele_ , what now?" he cursed when an alarm started blaring.

"Doc? What's that?" Lorne shouted over the noise.

Radek hurried to check the readings. "It's an overload! It's happening again!" He ran to and fro trying to get systems to respond.

"Can't you stop it?"

"I'm trying to! It's not responding!" A spark flew then more joined in. Radek fell back on the floor, fingers red from the burn. He looked up at the screen and saw it was past the threshold. "We have to get out of here!" 

Lorne helped him up and followed all the scientists clearing the room. As they were getting through the door, a bright white light blinded them and they were thrown across the corridor from the energy burst.

Radek slowly opened his eyes. The whole building was shrouded in darkness. Lorne's lamp flashed from near him and Radek was able to observe his surroundings. 

"Nothing appears broken. You okay, doc?" 

Radek nodded and took Lorne's hand to stand up.

"Anyone there?" came a voice from inside the lab.

It couldn't be. Radek followed Lorne's beam of light into the room. 

"Hello?" the voice called again.

Radek was going to kill him. "Rodney?"

"Radek? Oh, thank God, it worked!" 

"Are you guys okay?" Lorne asked as he stepped closer to the group.

"Yes. No!" Rodney answered. "Sheppard needs medical attention."

That's when Radek saw the unconscious Colonel on the floor, blood covering his whole left side. Lorne hurried to his CO's side.

"What happened?"

"He was shot then got into a pretty good fight," Ronon answered.

Lorne was already on the radio calling the jumper and asking them for reinforcements. The major took out a field dressing and helped Teyla with the one she was holding by Sheppard's side until a team of medics arrived to stabilize him. 

"So, you managed to get back," Radek said to Rodney.

"Obviously. If it was up to you we'd still be there." 

Radek glared. "We barely slept for days trying to figure out what you done with this lab!" 

"It wasn't exactly a picnic for us either!" Rodney shot back. "Whoawhoawhoa." He stopped the medic that had begun moving Sheppard to a gurney. "Are you sure it's safe to move him?"

"Yes, Doctor. We need to get him to Atlantis and under the scanner."

Teyla held Rodney's arm. "Just let the doctor do his job."

Rodney swallowed and nodded. 

Sheppard was wheeled out of the lab while his team followed. Radek smiled. Somehow they had made it back again. 

They always did.

*******  
**

"Is this really necessary?" Rodney asked. The nurse held down his arm and forced a cuff around it. "Ouch! Careful!" Rodney winced. "I told you I'm fine. I didn't get into any fights, didn't get captured by primitive natives or shot at by wraith." Rodney grunted when the cuff cut his circulation completely. "Not so much! It's too tight!" It began deflating. "Okay, I did get shot at by wraith, but I assure you that I didn't get hit."

Ronon jumped out from his bed with a menacingly aggressive glare to the male nurse treating his leg injury. "I told you I'm fine." 

"You need stitches." The huge nurse, as as big as Ronon was, crossed his arms defiantly. "Sit. Or I'll sedate you." The small nurse next to them reached for a syringe. 

Ronon groaned and sat on the gurney. 

"When will--" Rodney winced when the butcher inserted the needle without even warning him. "We know about Sheppard's condition?" He closed his eyes to avoid watching his blood filling the plunger.

"As soon as there is anything to inform you about," she said with an annoyingly calm voice. 

They waited for some time after their post mission checkup was finished. Rodney paced, Teyla hugged her son after he had been brought by Kanaan and Ronon glared, grunted and glared some more. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity of wait, Jennifer came in.

"So?" All eyes set on her.

She smiled. "He's okay. He has a large second degree burn on the left side of his chest and a slightly deeper cut on top of it. I cleaned everything, put in some topic antibiotics, stitched the wound and bandaged it. He's almost recovered from the stun which was little worse than usual because of his weakened state. He needs rest and plenty of fluids but he'll be all right in just a few days." 

They all released a collective sigh of relief.

*******  
**

"Hey, mister Grumpy-face." Rodney entered the infirmary with a grin on his face and a laptop under his arm.

John groaned. "Look who's talking." 

"I'm not grumpy-face. In fact, at the moment I'm the exact opposite of mister Grumpy-face." He placed the laptop on the unoccupied bed next to John's then stood next to him, still beaming. 

"Do you know something that I don't?"

"I know a lot of things that you don't. Genius here, remember?" He crossed his arms.

John rolled his eyes. 

Rodney sighed. "Do you think they made it back?"

John shrugged and placed his hand over the bandage. "Sure. In between you and Carter, I'm sure the machine worked fine. We're here, aren't we?" 

Rodney nodded. "I wish there was a way to know for sure."

"What about the device?" John asked as he curled his nails into the healing injury.

Rodney huffed. "Yeah, the one on this side is useless. Can't stay on for more than a few seconds before exploding."

John nodded. "That's probably for the best." He closed his hand into a fist over the wound. 

"When will the doctor release you, John?" Teyla asked.

"She said when I behave like a good boy."

"Gonna take a while then," Ronon teased.

"For your information I _am_ a good boy." John said while he absently started to scratch over the bandage. Teyla slapped his hand away and he pouted like a two year old. "Most of the time," he completed. 

"Doctor Keller said you shouldn't scratch the healing skin," she said in her mom voice.

"God, you're worse than her baby." Rodney said while he pushed a chair to sit.

John turned his hands into fists as he tried to resist the urge to scratch his skin raw but failed miserably, barely noticing when his nails started to scrape over his clothes again. 

"I'm gonna tie your hands back!" Ronon glared. 

That damn itch would drive him insane any minute now. "God!" John groaned as he threw his hand away. "Tell me you have something to distract me!" 

Rodney smirked and grabbed his laptop.

"What you got there?" John asked as he tried to peak behind the screen facing Rodney. 

Rodney grinned from ear to ear. "The new season of Doctor Who!" 

"The new season of what?"

Rodney's grin dropped. "C'mon, don't tell me you don't know what it is!" 

His hand started making way underneath the infirmary sheet. "Doctor Something? Never heard of it." 

"Unbelievable! It's the longest running sci-fi show ever!"

Ronon held John's hand. John grunted. "I thought you didn't like sci-fi. Too _inaccurate_." 

"Well, for this one I usually make an exception." He sat back in his chair. "It takes me back to my childhood. Watching Tom Baker and Sarah Jane Smith… Ah… Sara Jane Smith…" He grinned.

"You're not gonna force us to watch it, are you?" Ronon asked. 

John took that chance to slip his hand under the blanket again. "Is it old?"

"What? Old? Didn't you hear me? I said latest season!" Rodney puffed in indignation. "Besides, look who's talking, Mister Back-to-the-Future-is-the-best-movie-ever!" 

John grinned. 

Rodney placed the laptop on John's legs and hit play. Teyla, Rodney and Ronon adjusted themselves around his bed as a weird blue box blasted through the screen with smoke coming out of it. 

John forgot his hand on his lap and just enjoyed the show.

**The End**


End file.
